


I Will Prove Myself

by SatanicRhianna



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Foul Language, Lighthearted, Maybe more characters, Multiple chapters, Post-Fall of Overwatch, Team Talon (Overwatch), and i will try to keep the fighting interesting and imaginable, but its just battle scenes, i will try to keep it interesting during the non battle parts, there is violence, this story about Brigitte's way to becoming an Overwatch hero
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-27 17:25:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14430510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SatanicRhianna/pseuds/SatanicRhianna
Summary: Overwatch is starting over and is calling for all heroes to join. Brigitte has trained for a long time and is finally ready to rise up along side her father and mentor. Its not going to be easy. She has a lot of work ahead of her if she is to separate from her famous legacy and be her own Overwatch hero. In this story, Brigitte charges head first against anything and anyone that stands in her way.





	1. Old Glory

“ I thought we talked about this. You don’t have to do this anymore. Winston’s message wasn’t meant for you. This isn’t your fight.” Brigitte stepped closer to Reinhardt. Reinhardt stood in front of the memorial of his old Crusader captain. He stared at his Overwatch medal. Brigitte struggled to come up with her next sentence before finally continuing. “ Papa told me, after so many years of service. You gave Overwatch everything, and then they pushed you out. Why would you go back to them? What are they still fighting for?”

Reinhardt traced the Overwatch symbol one more time before he sat it on the throne. He took a step back. “ I have been called.” He turned and looked at Brigitte who met his stare. “ I must answer…” She knew his answer even before she voiced her concerns. She had been Reinhardt’s squire for years now. They had spent everyday together. They trained, they worked on the crusader armor, they ate, drank and shared stories together. Mostly Reinhardt that is. So she knew how pointless it would be to try to convince him to ignore the call.

It wasn’t so much Overwatch itself that was the issue as it was Reinhardt’s age and health. The man would never admit he was getting worn, never. But Brigitte knew. She spend most of their time after battles not celebrating over pints, but rather over her workbench in their transport trying to put the old man and his armor back together.

Overwatch had made mistakes. There was a reason the Petras Act called for its disbandment. But there were bigger problems in the world. Way bigger than what she and Reinhardt could handle. She also knew there were a lot of heros out there ready to form together and help wherever it was needed. Her father included. So she stepped back as Reinhardt walked back to the entrance of the old castle.

They walked a short distance to their shuttle van in silence. She knew Reinhardt would be leaving immediately. He opened the side door where his armor laid. “ Are you coming with me, my squire?” Brigitte crossed her arms over her chest. Of course he’d want her to come. She wanted to go too. She’d never turn her back when people needed help. That was exactly why she had to say no.

“ Reinhardt, I want to come to Overwatch. It would be a dream come true to fight alongside you and papa.”

“It sounds like a ‘but’ is coming, my dear.” Brigitte gave a soft smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“ But, the people of Eichenwald need us too. We came here to rebuild this war torn city. Someone has to stay behind and get this once beautiful city back to its old glory.”

Reinhardt smiled sweetly and nodded. He understood. He was proud of his goddaughter. He had seen her grow into this strong woman. He had no doubt in his mind that she’d be a crusader just like him. Had they been still around. He placed his huge hand on her shoulder.  
“ I know this choice wasn’t easy, Brigitte.” They were going to split up for the first time since they joined six years ago. Tears welled up in his squire’s eyes. It would only be a matter of time before he himself started to weep. “ You have work to do.” He wiped a fast tear from her cheek. “ As do I and everyone who wants to bring Overwatch back. I guarantee you, once we have have everything set, I will send word to you. I know you will answer the call when you are finished here.” He pounded his chest with his fist. “ Someday Brigitte Lindholm, we will fight side by side! Not as an old man and his apprentice…” Brigitte chucked and a few more tears trailed down her freckled cheeks. She placed her balled up fist over her chest like Reinhardt. “... But as teammates!” Brigitte rushed to Reinhardt and hugged him tightly. “ I’ll be ready for that day.”

Reinhardt embraced his goddaughter and sniffled hard in effort to keep together. “ I know you will, my dear.”

 

 

                                  -3 years later -

 

A young girl weaved around the market crowd as she ran down a freshly paved cobblestone road. The sun had about an hour, maybe less before it sunk behind the old castle ruin walls. Most of the market goers were on their way home and were walking opposite to the girl.

She was making a game of swerving through the crowd. She was winning until she ran into the belly of a rather large man.

“ Johanna!” He laughed. “ What's the hurry? Where are you running off to at this time? Does your mother know you are out?”

“ Yes sir! She sent me to see Miss Brigitte!”

The man nodded in understanding. “ Everything alright at home? Is it your father's prosthetic giving him trouble?”

The girl shook her head. “ No no. Papa is fine. The one she made feels amazing he said! Better than the one given to him from the hospital.”

“ I'm glad to hear it!” The crowd leaving got thicker so he led the girl off to the side to continue their chat. “ So what does your mother need you to see that busy girl for?”

She smiled and turned her back to reveal her backpack. “ We have something to give her!”

The man laughed. “ Very well then. Be safe child.”

“ I will!” She took off passed the rest of the crowd and made it to the dirt road that led to the fields right outside of town. It was only a short walk now. She could see Brigitte's workshop in the distance.

Brigitte had turned an old barn into her workshop. The townsfolk had no issues with her taking over the property. Her first few months repairing the city was spent fixing the old power station. That was one huge feat. When she got her first look into the station, it was practically being held together by gum and duct tape. So much duct tape. She got it running at thirty percent more capacity those first months. That alone got her skills recognised and appreciated. So when she asked if she could use the old barn as a temporary workshop, the town had no problem. In fact they wanted her to have a place in town but she declined. She said the area around the barn was perfect.

It took her first year to actually rebuild the power station so it was as good as new, with it producing more power than before. Then she moved on to building and repairing construction tools. Soon after that, the city was able to tackle the roadways and the rebuilding truly took off.

The following year she focused on assisting the people. Now that the town was focused on rebuilding the infrastructure, she would make house calls or people would come and visit her at her shop.

Somewhere in the shop a small radio was playing music. The red evening light shone through the many holes in the metal walls. The girl walked in. The shop was quiet. She couldn't hear any tinkering.

“ Brigitte? You here?” She stepped further into the mess. Multiple projects were at all different stages of competition. “Brigitte?” She traced her fingers on an old hover cycle. The girl smiled. She swiped the dust off the old leather seat. It took her two jumps to finally make it on the bike. The bike sat on two jacks in mid completion.

The girl reached up to grab at the raised handle bars. Once she grabbed on as high as she could, she began making motor sounds with her mouth.

She made screeching sounds and shifted her body to the side and then again to the other side as she imagined her flying down the road. The hover bike suddenly dipped down and started. The girl flinched at the sudden movement and noise. Arms around her stomach held her on the bike instead of sliding off.

“ Oops! Didn't mean to startle you, Johanna!”

Johanna turned her head back and looked up at Brigitte with a wide smile.

“ It works?!”

Brigitte winced with a smile. “ Well… not quite yet. The jets aren't pushing enough to keep it up. I need to get in there and see what the problem is.” She rolled her neck. “ But right now I was trying to get Mrs. Decker's caretaker bot to stop hurling anything within arm's reach.”

Brigitte turned the bike off and Johanna slid off the seat as she got up. “ Really!?” That's when she noticed a bruise on Brigette's forehead and giggled.

“ Yeah the bot is perfect if it were in a batting cage. But I don't think Mrs. Decker needs her meds at 40 miles an hour.” Johanna laughed harder and rushed to hug Brigette.

“Hey kiddo. So what brings you down here so late?” As if it all came back to her, Johanna gasped and turned around to present her backpack.

“ Here! Open it up!” Brigette unzipped the bag and immediately gasped.

“ Your mother didn't! These are my favorite!” Brigitte took out two pie tins covered in foil.

“ Happy birthday, Brigitte!” She exclaimed.

“ Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Brigitte put the pies on top of one of her tool boxes and went to give Johanna another hug and kissed her forehead.

“ We also have mail for you at the house. Ma said to not bring it so you have to come over for dinner!”

Brigitte pulled back out of the hug in fake shock. “ A hostage situation!” She laughed. “ Let me put these pies in the fridge. Then we can head over.”

Brigitte walked to the back of the barn and through the back door. The back was filled with all sorts of scraps. Most of the metal and electric parts she worked with was stored back here. To any normal person it would look like a junkyard but everything was perfectly organized for the mechanic. She wasted nothing and reused anything she could.

Brigitte slid open the side door to Reinhardt's old transport vehicle. The vehicle was no longer running and was now planted into the ground where it died. She could get it working if she spent enough time on it, but she had other things to fix up. Now it served as her room. Her bed was up at the front of the vehicle. She had multiple photos and Holovids on the dashboard of people and landmarks of Eichenwald. In the center of the van, where Reinhardt's armor usually sat, laid a bunch of smaller pieces of armor and even more blueprints.

Brigitte rubbed at her welt on her forehead. She unbuckled the metal glove on her left hand and slid it off. She would need to make her shield a bit larger. But how could she do that and still keep it light enough to maneuver efficiently.

She placed the gauntlet on the table. She would need more advanced technology. Something way to expensive and unobtainable. She sighed and went to the fridge.

 

Brigette ran down the dimly lit road through the city with Johanna on her back. The young girl made hover bike noses the whole way there. When they finally reached Johanna’s home, the girl made the iconic braking screech.

“ New Eichenwald record!” Brigette exclaimed. Johanna laughed and slid off her back. She ran for the door and swung it open. “Mama! Papa! I'm the fastest biker in town!” Brigitte walked in and shut the door behind her.

“ You are? Well you better not get caught by the police.” A beautiful woman with thick brown hair finished setting a bowl on the table and walked over. “ There's the birthday girl!” She hugged Brigitte and leaned back to see how dirty the mechanic was. “ Thank you, Hylda.”

“ My god, it looks like you just lost a fight with all that dirt and all those bruises.”

“ I kinda did.” She thought about the embarrassing blow to her head.

“ Go ahead and wash up dear. Abel should be done any minute.”

 

Dinner was amazing as usual. Hylda walked back from the kitchen from putting the leftovers away. Brigitte sat on the couch with Abel.“ I packed you some of the stew for you to take back to your workshop.” Brigitte looked over her shoulder. “ Thank you!” Johanna walked over to her mother. “ We still have to give her her mail, mama!”

“ Oh that's right! I'm sorry it had to be this way, my dear.” Hylda said over dramatically. “ But unless we held these against their will, you'd never leave that ol barn.”

Brigitte laughed. “ No no I understand and thank you for it. I don't realize how long I stay hold up.” Hylda came back with a few envelopes. Brigitte got up and took them from Hylda. She was shuffling through them when her pocket started meowing and vibrating.

Brigitte's eyes grew big. She reached in her pocket and brought out her video screen. A blue pixel image of a phone flashed slowly. Johanna walked over curiously.

“ Oh it's my mother!” Brigitte accepted the call and her mother appeared. In the screen, Brigitte could see her mother sitting at the dining room table. Behind her was the front room with the fireplace going. “ Hello mama!” Brigitte walked around to the couch and sat down.

“ Hello baby, happy birthday!”

Brigitte smiled. “ Thank you Mama! It's so good to see you! How are you? How's the house? Is papa home yet?”

Her mother laughed. “ I'm doing fantastic darling. The house is large and lonely, but that's it.” Ingrid huffed. “ No, your father isn't home yet. In fact he rang earlier today and was going on about some exhibition in Iraq.”

“ Iraq? In Oasis?”

Ingrid took a sip from her mug. After, she nodded. “ Yes! He has been there for almost a month now. Overwatch is trying to get the Oasis people to work with them. They are using your father to persuade them.”

Brigitte chuckled. “ Papa? They want papa to persuade those Oasis stiff necks? No wonder they still have him there.”

Ingrid laughed. “ That's what I told your father.”

Johanna hopped on the couch and leaned into the video screen camera. “ Your Mama has a pretty laugh!” Brigitte scooched over to make room for Johanna.

“ Hello Johanna.” Ingrid waved through the screen.

“ Hello Mrs Lindholm!” She waved back excitedly.

“ I'm glad to see you with Johanna's family instead of alone in that dusty old barn.” Brigitte rolled her eyes. Abel leaned into frame this time.

“ Yes we had to bait her out! She wouldn't come willingly.” He joked.

“ What!? That's not…” Brigitte started that sentence strong but it fizzed out once she figured he was right. “... Well maybe I need a little coaxing.”

“ I feel so much better knowing such a kind family is look after my baby girl.” Ingrid said softly.

Hylda leaned on the back of the couch. “ The whole town is looking after her Mrs. Lindholm. She has done so much for us. We could never repay her.” Ingrid smiled at hearing this.

“ I'm so glad to hear that. I'm so proud of you honey.”

“ Thank you Mama.” Brigitte talked a little bit longer with her mother. Brigitte noticed she looked tired so they said their goodbyes and goodnights, then she logged off.

Abel lifted Johanna off his lap and held her in his arms. “ Speaking of goodnight. It is way past your bedtime.”

Johanna protested. “ No I'm still wide awake! I can't!” Abel put her down on the floor. He kneeled down to her level and stuck his fist out. His hand up to his wrist was metal. He had crushed his hand while working years ago. His old prosthetic was mostly made of hard plastic and was only able to move in certain directions. He still couldn't lift heavy objects or grip things too well. It was a pretty basic prosthetic for this day in age.

When Brigitte was first introduced to the man, they went to shake hands. That was when the mechanic seen his hand. She offered to make him a new one immediately. Now it was just like his real hand and he couldn't be more grateful.

“ Let's play for it. If you win, you can stay up another hour.” Johanna started hopping. “ But if I win sweetie, you go to bed now with no arguments.”

“ Deal papa!” Brigitte watched Abel's fingers as they curled out to a scissor shape. Then again when he went paper and covered his daughter's hand. It was a smooth movement. She could see how well the hand she built was. She could find a way to fix her shield.


	2. Goodbye Eichenwald

It was a new moon tonight. So it was dark, but the sky was clear. Brigitte stood outside the transport van with one of the pies already half eaten in her hand. She opened her letters during the walk home. Most were thank you letters from folks in town. One of the letters was from her father, wishing her a happy birthday. He had sent her a video card. He briefly ran through all the news with Overwatch and his extended stay in Oasis. He complained about how pointless it was to try to convince Oasis to willingly join new Overwatch or as he called them “An overly ambitious world peace charity organization”. It sounded like he had no hope for Overwatch but Brigitte knew her father well. He would not be working this hard for a cause he did not believe in.

 

Torbjörn had a lot of regret and blamed himself for the advanced weapons and security designs he created that ended up falling into dangerous hands after Overwatch shut down. But he was hard at work doing what he did best, fixing things.  He built bases, weapons and aircraft all over the world for New Overwatch and it's growing members and fighters. Brigitte longed for the day she could do her part. She was hoping to see a letter from Reinhardt with the rest of the mail and it hurt her when there was none. She was happy with all the work she had done for Eichenwald and its people. But now it was time to do more! She was mentally ready but her armor was far from it. If she didn't want to sit on the sidelines doing repairs for the rest of the heroes who were making a difference, then she better get back to work.

 

Brigitte hurried to her van and stashed the unfinished pie back in her mini fridge. She attached all her armor pieces to her body. What little bit she had that is. Lastly, she clipped her back armor plate into place. It was not as comfortable as she would like but she would just have to add that into her notes. This was her first test run with her new design. She ran outside and grabbed her wrench.

 

Mrs. Decker's caretaker bot stood chained to a large oak tree in the far corner of the property. Brigitte slipped on a padded helmet that she quickly threw together. She walked up to the bot slowly. She picked up the chain and gave it a hard tug. The chain shifted and went slack, then hit the ground. Immediately the bot swung it's arms at her.

 

She used her wrench to block the bot’s arm. It made a loud clash and the impact vibrated through her arm. She activated her shield. A small square force field came from her metal gauntlet. It flickered once then took form. She clenched her jaw and pushed with all her might. The bot lost it's footing and toppled backwards.

 

Brigitte straightened up and pulled her hair out of her mouth. She let the shield drop while she reached behind her back to fix some wiring. The bot on the ground began to shake. The noise drew Brigitte's attention. Suddenly multiple rocks and dirt clumps were being hurled in her direction.

 

[ T-t- ime for you-your medicine, Mrs. Deck-k-k-ker.]

 

“ Oh yikes!” Brigitte brought up her shield. She had to crouch behind her small shield, paying close attention to keep her face covered. The bot began to lift itself up. While it's arms were chucking everything it could, it's legs pulled it up right. Even Brigitte had to admit it was creepy to witness.

 

“ Okay! Let's test this baby out!” She walked forward with her shield up. The force field bubbled whenever a rock hit it. In her right hand she held a trigger. She pressed it once and the engine on her back revved to life. Her feet skidded forward a little.

 

“ Woah!” It felt weird to be pushed by her armor. “ Easy, easy.” She looked at the bot and started to feel uneasy about jetting forward.

 

[ Mrs Deck-k-k-ker… time… time…]

 

“ I know! I know! Medicine time.”

 

[... To die…]

 

Brigitte's eyes almost popped out of her sockets. “ What the hell did Mrs. Decker do to this thing!?” Without hesitation this time, Brigitte pressed the trigger as hard as she could that she crushed the device. The jet on her back roared to life. It shook her whole body. She couldn't keep her teeth from chattering. Then she felt her feet slide across the dirt. “ Here we go!” The jet finally picked up enough power to propel Brigitte at the bot. She pushed her shield up in front of her and slammed into the bot, forcing both of them to slam into the tree. The bot instantly shattered into dozens of pieces. Brigitte's shield also shattered, ruining her gauntlet. She bounced off the tree and fell on her back. The jet armor jammed into her back and knocked the wind out of her. Brigitte gasped and slowly rolled onto her stomach where she laid defeated but also victorious. “ Gahh, I'm going to feel that in the morning...”

  


Johanna poked her head out of the barn backdoor and looked around at the mess. Then she walked to the transport van and poked her head inside. It was empty and hard to tell if she even came home last night. Everything  looked the same to Johanna. “ Where is she now?” She sighed. She turned around and looked out towards the rest of the property. She lifted her hand to her forehead to block out the morning sun. Something was reflecting back at her. Johanna squinted but still couldn't make it out. She was about to ignore it, thinking it was more junk until smoke started coming from it. Johanna ran over to it.

 

“Brigitte!” Brigitte moaned and lifted her head. She pushed her torso up and opened her sleepy eyes only to shut them from the bright sun. She groaned as she got herself on her knees. Johanna ran to the mechanic and looked all over at her strange attire. Brigitte rubbed her eyes and lazily slapped at her armor trying to unclip out of it. That's when she felt how hot the metal was.

 

“ Ah! Hot! What the!?”

 

“ Your back is also smoking.”

 

“ It is!? Oh no!” Johanna giggled. Brigitte clipped her jet armor off and jumped up away from it. She made sure to grab Johanna and ran away from the possible explosion. The smoke turned black and more started flowing from it. Johanna looked over Brigitte's shoulder pad and watched the jet catch fire.

 

Now that they were back at the barn, Brigitte put Johanna back on the ground. She had the widest smile. She thought the whole thing was so much fun. The danger of it all never even crossed her mind.

 

“ I'm so sorry about that!”

 

Johanna giggled. “ What were you doing on the ground?”

 

“ I must of fallen asleep. I was way more exhausted than I thought.” Brigitte moved some equipment out of her way to grab the fire extinguisher. She yanked it from its box and gave it a test spray.

 

“ But Outside?!” Johanna giggled. Brigitte could only shrug in response. “ And what are you wearing?” She said as she followed Brigitte back to the small grass fire.

 

“ I've been working on some armor.”

 

“ Like the old crusaders?”

 

Brigitte smiled at Johanna. “ Just like the crusaders.” They reached the fire and Brigette sprayed the warped metal. Johanna watched quietly. She had a whole bunch of questions for the mechanic. She just needed to pick one.

 

“ What's the matter with this one.” She indicated the smoldering pile of metal.

 

“ My guess is I created a fuel leak when I slammed into the tree. The sun made my suit hot enough to get it to start smoking.” Johanna looked over at the tree in question. It had large scrapes in it and it was surrounded by a bunch of metal scraps.

 

“ You did that!? Amazing!” 

Brigitte laughed. “ It sure felt different. I have a lot more tweaking to do. It's not very comfortable.” She said as she cracked her neck. The fire was pretty much put out now. “ Well I guess I'll wait for this thing to cool before I drag it back to the shop.”

 

She and Johanna both sat under the tree. Brigitte had scooped up the caretaker bot’s pieces into one pile. She also had taken off the rest of her armor. Johanna was playing with her gloves.

 

“ So, what are you gonna say to Mrs Decker now that her robot is gone?”

 

Brigitte laughed. “ Oh yeah! No, I had already rebuilt her a new one. This one was… creepy. Plus it was just want I needed to practice on. I'll send the new one over to her today.”

 

“ Oh yeah! I almost forgot!” Johanna grabbed her backpack and unzipped it as fast as she could. Brigitte scooched closer.

 

“ What you got in there this time?” Johanna reached in and out as fast as she could. “ Here!” She held an envelope. “ We had this mixed up with our mail! We're sorry!” Brigitte took it from her.

 

“ Oh that's no problem, thank-” as soon as her eyes landed on the sender any thought in her mind flew out. Brigitte stood up suddenly. Johanna scrambled to get up as well.

 

“ What's the matter, Brigitte?”

 

“ This is-! It's from Reinhardt!” Brigitte open the envelope and took out it's contents. Johanna stood next to her, confused.

 

“ Who's Reinhardt?”

 

“ He's one of those crusaders you hear stories about.”

 

“ Really!?” She exclaimed. “ How does he know you?”

“ He's my godfather. He's currently serving for Overwatch.” She opened up the letter and read it  carefully but as fast as possible.

 

          _Dear Brigitte,_

_It's been too long for this knight to be without his squire! But it's been even longer since I've seen my goddaughter. I've been keeping up with the news in Eichenwald. You've really done wonders for that beautiful town and its people. I can't wait to see it with my own eyes!_

_I'm not so sure if that will be any time soon. As I'm sure you know, Overwatch is getting bigger and bigger with every passing moment. Winston, Angela, Jack, Ana, and your father are all working non stop for peace through these darker times. It seems there are even more fighting against us than with. But! We have also grown in support. The worse things get, the more people hope._

_The Switzerland's training base has opened and is filling with young inspired heros! Of course you came to mind. I hope this time you are ready. I'd very much like to have you fight alongside us. Next recruit enrollment is in June. Along with this letter, I've sent to you the information for Switzerland and an air ticket to the base. I have a feeling you won't be missing that flight._

_Bis bald Reinhardt_

 

“ Brigitte? Hello!? Brigitte!” Johanna's little voice finally reached Brigitte's ears. “Brigitte talk to me!”

 

“ Yes! Yes, what? Johanna?”  She just remembered Johanna was there and had been tugging on her arm trying to get her attention.

 

“ What does the letter say?” She begged.

 

Brigitte folded the letter carefully. “ It says Overwatch is recruiting heros.” She let those words hang in the air. Brigitte had a million thoughts going through her head. There was so much to do now. Of course she would have to finish all her projects. She wouldn’t just leave these people hanging. She would also have to clear all of the mess in the barn and get the transport van to work! Brigitte rubbed her temples at the headache she was giving herself. She had just a split second of mind blankness to hear a soft sniffle. She turned around and looked at Johanna.

 

“ Oh Johanna…” She kneeled down to be at Johanna’s level. The young girl wiped her tears with her sleeve.

 

“ You’re leaving me. That’s what the letter said!” Brigitte frowned. She tugged Johanna softly into an embrace. She soothed her hair.

 

“ I am going to have to leave, Johanna. I’m so sorry.” Johanna pulled away. Her face was red from crying.

 

“ You can’t leave! My town needs you here!”

 

“ Your town is amazing, Johanna. Look how much its changed. Look at your school, your parks, the market…” Johanna crossed her arms. Brigitte scooched closer to have Johanna look at her. “ You and your town have it handled. Eichenwald doesn’t need my help anymore.”

 

“ I need your help.” She said weakly. Brigitte didn’t know what more to say. She sighed and stood up. “ Come on.” She said softly as she held out her hand to Johanna. The girl slowly took it. “ Let's go back to the barn. Since I am leaving, I’m going to need help finishing all these jobs.”

 

“ I don’t know how to fix anything.” She said with a pout.

 

“ Well, we still have plenty of time before I do have to leave. You will be able to fix anything by the time we are done. Then Eichenwald won’t need me. They’ll have you.” The two girls walked back to the shop and got started on fixing the hover bike together. No more tears came from Johanna that day. In fact, they didn’t speak a word about the letter or Overwatch. Brigitte was glad she got through to the young girl. She knew she’d leave someday, she just didn’t think it would be this hard.

  
  
  
  


Just like Brigitte said she could, Johanna stopped by Brigitte’s shop everyday. Brigitte would talk and show Johanna how to repair or wire something. She even let the girl try smithing. If she promised to keep it a secret from her family. She didn’t want Hylda and Abel to know their 6 year old daughter was playing with hot iron.

 

As the days passed and more and more projects were finished, the barn was starting to clear out. All that was left to do was get the van working. Brigitte slammed the hood shut and wiped her face with her dirty arm. A black smudge swiped across her cheeks. “ Okay Johanna! Start the van!”  Johanna pressed the ignition button and the van shook with a clank before ultimately shutting off.

 

“ What!?” Brigitte exclaimed. “ I don’t understand! Everything should be working.” Brigitte opened the hood again while Johanna opened the driver side door and stepped over. Johanna put her thumbs through her belt loops and stepped in front of Brigitte.

 

“ Alright lil missy, let a real professional take it from here.” She said with a wink. Brigitte was blown away.

 

“ A real professional you say?” She laughed. “ Okay well, would the professional like a step stool to look inside?” She moved the stool with her foot so Johanna could use it.

 

“ Thank you assistant.”

 

“ Look at what I created.” Brigitte scoffed. Johanna stood on her tippy toes to look inside at the engine. She bit her lip as she examined the motor. Brigitte was about to come over to look for herself when Johanna dove her hand inside the motor.

 

“ Oh! Be careful!” But she just as well have eaten those words. Johanna pulled back her arm and held a wrench that was left in the motor. She handed the wrench to Brigitte.

 

“ Now start the van.” She demanded.

 

“ Yes ma’am.” Brigitte laughed. She sat in the seat and pushed the start button. The van roared to life. This time without the clanking. Brigitte gasped and leaned out of the van window. “ You did it!” Johanna beamed at her.

 

“ I sure did! Now, outta the van. I'm driving.” Brigitte exited the vehicle and leaned on the driver side door.

 

“ Oh you are, huh?”

 

“ I fixed the van, I should be able to drive it.” Brigitte rose one eyebrow. “ At least let me drive home! Please!?”  

  


 

The van pulled up to Johanna's home. Her parents were already standing outside waiting. The driver side door opened and Johanna hopped out.

 

“ Johanna!” Yelled Abel in shock. Then he look at Brigitte looking for an explanation.

 

“ I had her steer! I had control over the pedals.” Abel laughed nervously. “ It's very hard to say no to your daughter. But I'm sure you already knew that.” Both Abel and Hylda nodded in agreement.

 

“ I fixed her van papa! I got it to work!”

 

“ You are leaving, tonight. Is that correct?” Asked Hylda. Johanna stopped jumping around and listened.

 

“ That's right. My flight leaves tomorrow. I have to make it to the airport by 10.” Hylda walked up to Brigitte and pulled her into a hug.

 

“ Thank you for everything you've done for this town and my family. Johanna thinks the world of you.”

 

“ You are all she ever talks about. You've really inspired this young engineer. If only she'd stop tearing the house apart.” Abel added while he took Johanna's hand.

 

“ I should be thanking you. You guys have been looking out for me since I met you. I am going to miss you all and this town. If there is anything you need, don't hesitate to contact me. I'll send you my address at the base once I get there.” She smiled at Johanna. She smiled back, but she looked more sad then happy. Brigitte kneeled down to talk to Johanna.

 

“ I promise I'll come back. I'll even bring Reinhardt with me. He loves this town. I also know he'll want to meet you.” Johanna wrapped her arms around Brigitte's neck. “ Please don't be sad, Johanna.”

 

“ I'm not sad!” She said with a sniffle. “ I'm determined.” Brigitte pulled back to look at the young girl.

 

“ Oh yeah?”

 

“ Yeah! I'm going to give this town a reason to need you back! Just you wait! I'm going to start a hover cycle gang and then this whole town will be in danger!” Brigitte laughed.

 

“ That sounds like a threat. Please be good for your parents.” Johanna shrugged and smiled.

 

Brigitte climbed into her van and gave one last wave to Johanna and her family. She started the vehicle and left Eichenwald for the first time in 3 years. That was a long time alone. The drive was going to be long and gave her plenty of time to think. She was 26 years old. She had spent almost a decade of training and waiting. Now, every mile passed and every drive through a city brought her closer to Overwatch. She knew that once she was there, she could work on her armor. With nothing holding her back, she could finally perfect it and put it to use. Although she would need something other than a old wrench as a weapon. But she'll figure that out in due time. The most important thing was, she was on her way to fighting for the safety of the world.


	3. Planting Seeds

Torbjörn shoved open his hotel room door and stomped inside. The room was designed in an elaborate arabic style with beautiful and bright tapestries hanging on the wall. The room was an expensive suite complete with a sitting area that sunk into the floor with a tray of hot tea already on the table and surrounded by pillows to sit on that matched the walls. The bedroom and bathroom were separate but even more grand.

 

Torbjörn had a phone up to his ear and was fuming. “ Why do you want to keep me here, Jack!? These weird hat wearing ministry members don't want to waste resources on our organization and you know what? I don't blame them! They bring up excellent points. Overwatch doesn't exactly have a good reputation to it.”

 

He walked over to the tea and picked it up to smell it. He physically cringed and set it down. “ We are not going to sway them Jack! I've wasted enough time here. I'm out staying my welcome.” Torbjörn walked into the lavish bedroom and hopped on the bed. “ Would you please! I'd like to go home by tomorrow.” He paused to let the strike commander speak. “ I know how important it was. Believe me. But, we'll just have to make due without them. We've done it before.” Another pause. “ Thank you.” He hung up and threw his phone to the other side of the bed. He flopped backwards and sighed. This old man was beat. He really did try to get the ministry to agree to be contracted with Overwatch. They wouldn't budge. They didn't even want to hear what Strike commander Jack had to say. He was only able to send a representative under the exception that Overwatch was to send someone worthy.

 

Torbjörn would of thought Winston as a good candidate, but Jack brought up that lately, Oasis had been focusing on innovation rather than intellect. Which was true. Upon hearing that Commander Jack would send Torbjörn Lindholm to represent Overwatch, they agreed to hear what he had to say.

 

Torbjörn spent a week just being shown Oasis and it's departments. He was blown away by how much they were doing. There was no mistaking that Oasis was a central hub of geniuses and ingenuity. Torbjörn has spent the remainder of his time here speaking with the ministry's department leaders. He was trying to convince them that working side by side with the new Overwatch could benefit Oasis and the whole world. Unfortunately, they had no interest in choosing a side and forfeiting their neutrality.

 

Torbjörn was just about to fall into deep sleep when a knock came from the door. Torbjörn sat up and slid off the bed with a grumble. He opened the door to find a hotel omnic butler.

 

“ Good evening, sir.” It said in a metallic voice.

 

“ This better be good news.”

 

“ A message for you.” The Omnic leaned down to hand Torbjörn a letter. Torbjörn took it with questions. But the Omnic turned and left as soon as the letter was delivered. Torbjörn shut the door and opened the letter. It was a letter from the head of the department of genetics. A woman who had been gone the whole time Torbjörn had been staying at Oasis. She was the only ministry member he had yet to speak to.

 

In the letter she wrote she apologized that she hadn’t been in Oasis to speak with the Overwatch representative and would like a chance to speak face to face before he left, if possible. Also in the letter was an address and a phone number with her extension. Torbjörn light heartedly scoffed at how official and old fashioned the letter was. Who ever this member was, they sounded like an interesting character. What's more is that she reached out to him. It was probably a long shot, but maybe she would support him. He'd at least try, for Overwatch.

  


The hover limo taking Torbjörn to the airport pulled up to the ministry's department of genetics and parked. The automatic doors opened and Torbjörn climbed out. He had called Doctor O’Deorain earlier this morning to set up a meeting. She said she would clear the rest of her morning just to speak to him. Torbjörn walked through the doors of the front building. It was cool inside with soft lighting on the dark purple walls. Torbjörn walked to the front desk. “ Excuse me sir, I'm here to see Moira O’Deorain.” He was significantly smaller than the counter so the receptionist searched to find the source of the voice.

 

Torbjörn rolled his eyes. “ Down here.” The receptionist stood up and looked over.

 

“ Oh! Hello sir. How can I help you?”

 

“ I have a meeting with Doctor O’Deorain.” The receptionist's eyes widened with realization.

 

“ Oh! Yes of course, you must be Mr. Lindholm. Yes please, follow me to the elevators.” The man stood and walked briskly ahead of Torbjörn. Once they made it to the elevators, the receptionist pressed his hand on a pad on the wall and the doors slid open. “ This will take you up to her office. No need to do anything else, just step off once the doors open.”

 

“ Yes I know how elevators work, thank you.” Torbjörn walked in and the doors closed behind him.

 

Torbjörn had visited every department in Oasis. All of them seemed to have their own color theme and layout. The genetics department felt darker and cooler and emptier. At least from what he could see. Which was limited to the front lobby and the inside of the elevator. This department was not as open as the others. Torbjörn wondered if it had something to do with the sensitive nature of their work.

 

The elevator gave a soft ding and the doors opened. There was a short hallway that led to two doors that were opened. Torbjörn stepped off the elevator and the doors slid closed. He could hear the car descend. The only way to go now was through the open doors. So he did.

 

Torbjörn made it to the threshold. The office was almost entirely made of glass save for the floor. Beyond the glass was a large open Lab area where multiple people were working diligently. A red haired woman sat behind a silver desk swiping on a screen embedded on the desktop. She looked up and locked eyes with Torbjörn. She immediately stood up and walked in front of her desk. Torbjörn walked forward into her office.

 

“ Hello, it is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Lindholm. Thank you for taking the time to see me. It's not everyday I get the chance to speak to such a celebrity in the scientific world.” She extended her gloved hand.

 

Torbjörn laughed while shaking her hand. “ I find that very hard to believe, Doctor O'Deorain.”

 

“ Oh? And why is that?”

 

“ Because you are one of the members of the Ministry. Every one of the members is a celebrity.”

 

Doctor O'Deorain chuckled at that. “ I suppose so. Although, after spending so much time with the rest of my peers, they seem less impressive.” The doctor gestured for Torbjörn to sit. She sat herself at the edge of her desk.

 

“ I was surprised to receive your letter last night.”

 

“ Yes I do apologize for the late interruption, but I didn't want to miss my chance to speak with you.”

 

“ Nor I. I'm all ears, my dear. What did you want to talk about?” The doctor braced her hands on the desk.

 

“ There is no denying that you are a genius of your craft. There was a reason Oasis allowed you to come and stay for so long.” Torbjörn nodded.

 

“ That was exactly what Commander Morrison thought and that's why Overwatch sent me here to seek the Ministry's help. I know that if we combine our research and our minds, we can help the world and put a stop to the conflicts before it becomes a new war.”

 

“ Yes, Overwatch.” Doctor O'Deorain started. “ A known world aggressor after the Omnic Crisis.” Torbjörn sat forward, clearly upset with the doctor's comment.

 

“ Now listen here, we are nothing like the Overwatch before.”

 

“ And what makes this time different. It still sounds like you are taking orders from Morrison.”

 

“ Commander Morrison and his team of advisors are in charge now. All of which are major advocates for peace, myself included. There is no one else in the new Overwatch who wishes to militarize this organization.”

 

Doctor O'Deorain started laughing. It was such a joyless laugh. “ You mean Commander Reyes is no longer in the picture. Let's not dance around the topic.” She fell back into her calm demeanor. “ Might I remind you that Commander Morrison isn't sinless either and let's not forget what you've done. The Ministry knows about your weapons and history.” Torbjörn opened his mouth to counter but the doctor continued. “ We also know about the many weapons blueprints that you lost.” Doctor O'Deorain pushed herself off her desk to sit down in her chair.

 

“ If you sent for me just to personally tell me the ministry would not help, well your peers beat you to it.”

 

“ I wanted to speak to you about you. Not Overwatch.” Torbjörn was stumped.

 

“ Why me?” Doctor O'Deorain leaned forward on her desk. “ The Ministry wont align with a military organization, and no matter how hard you try to tell us otherwise, we cannot be convinced. Mr. Lindholm, you are what the ministry is interested in. Someone with your skill and ingenuity. Not to mention your potential.”

 

Torbjörn was lost for words. This is not what he expected this meeting to lead to. Torbjörn stared at the doctor hard. Both of them impossible to read. After a long minute he spoke.

 

“ I am not going to leave Overwatch, doctor O'Deorain.”

 

“ You are making a grave mistake.” She immediately responded.

 

“ I think the ministry is making a mistake.” He shot back. “ The world needs people to fight for it. Things are brewing and Overwatch is ready at the front lines to protect people.”

 

“ Overwatch puts restrictions on technological advancements and hinders progress, Mr. Lindholm. It was before and it's doing it now. Join the ministry Mr. Lindholm.”

 

Torbjörn shook his head in blatant disagreement. “ If the ministry won't help us, we will continue on just fine.” Torbjörn turned to leave. He could feel when a conversation was over. Before he made it through the door the doctor spoke up again.

 

“ You think Overwatch can help the entire world? Overwatch will never have the resources or connections that we have...” Torbjörn scoffed, sparing one last moment in this unsettling woman's office to respond.

 

“ We'll manage.”

 

“ ...Or the protection that we can offer. Family included.” That struck a nerve with Torbjörn.

 

“ Is that a threat, Doctor O'Deorain?” He said severely.

 

The doctor leaned back into her chair. “ No Mr. Lindholm, that was not a threat. It is the truth.”

 

Torbjörn met the woman's stare. “ Goodbye, Doctor O'Deorain.” He left the office. He shivered while walking down the hall. “ What a gaunt and unsettling woman.” The elevator doors opened and led him back to the lobby. The limo was still waiting outside to take him to the airport.

 

Moira tapped her cheek in deep thought about her meeting with Overwatch's top engineer. The screen on her desk beeped. She already knew who it was, so she pressed a button on her screen to darken her glass office windows and shut the door. She was in complete darkness, save for the glow coming from her screen. She finally accepted the call.

 

“ Moira here.”

 

A deep voice on the other line spoke. “ How did your meeting with the impressive Torbjörn Lindholm go?”

 

“ Just as I predicted, he stays loyal to Overwatch. No matter how useless they are. But, Overwatch is still on it's own. I've convinced the entire ministry to vote against joining them.”

 

The voice hmm’d in understanding. “ That's fine for now. But we need to stay ahead of it. I want those missing blueprints or I want him.”

 

“ I understand. I think our meeting did more than just confirm what I already knew about the man.”

 

“ Oh?” The voice questioned.

 

“ Planting seeds, Akande. Planting seeds.”

  
  
  


Brigitte inched her van forward a little bit before ultimately stepping on the brake again. The line into the new Overwatch training facility was long and slow going. That was a good thing, right? All these people coming to join. She knew it was a good sign, but it sure was annoying.

 

She rested her head on her fist while she used the steering wheel to hold her arm up. She was exhausted. She barely made it to the airfield in time. She also expected to sleep on the ride there. That didn't happen. The ship that Reinhardt arranged for her was strictly a cargo ship. Perfect for taking Reinhardt's van and her armor. Terrible for a human being. She spent most of the flight trying not to get crushed by boxes and luggage.

 

The line started moving again. She let off the brake to inch forward. “ Oh good, looks like it's flowing faster now.” The vehicles ahead started going through the checkpoint with ease again.She pressed the gas only a little bit, then the van shook hard and started smoking in the cab.

 

“ _Fan!”_ She unbuckled her seatbelt and threw her door open. All the smoke in the cab flowed out in a continuous stream. She could already see the smoke from the engine. “ Oh no.” She lifted the hood up as fast as she could. The metal was burning hot. She seethed and shook her hands cool.

 

She leaned out of the way of the smoke before she dove her head on to see what was going on. “Overheating problem. Gah! I knew that wasn't enough coolant!” Multiple horns started honking and it was getting on the already frustrated mechanic's nerve. She reached into her many pockets on her work overalls and took out the tools she had on her. She quickly got to work. She didn't know what she could do without coolant, but maybe there would be a different way to cool the engine.

 

“ Hey! Move yer junk outta the way!” The man behind her laid on the horn obnoxiously. “ Come on! Some of us are here to actually solve problems not cause them.” He honked again. “ Incredible. Check out this fucking piece of work.” Brigitte was doing an excellent job of ignoring the man. But when the guy inched his vehicle into her van, that was it. The van moved and the front bumper hit her shins.

 

Brigitte pulled away from what she was doing and stomped over. The man behind the wheel laughed and rolled down his window all the way. The man looked young, about Brigitte's age maybe. His hair was dark and looked freshly shaved to military regulations. _one of these guys._ She thought to herself. “ Oh what? You wanna start something.” He said as she approached his side. “ If you want to start something, start your shitty truck.”

 

Brigitte twirled her wrench on her finger and looked his vehicle over. It was a nice model Z all terrain hover sport vehicle. Not brand new but pretty new. Probably paid for by his parents. Unfortunately for him, she had worked on a million of these models due to the fact that they break down after a few years.

 

“ You like what you see lady? A working car?” He started to laugh but it was cut short. Brigitte reached in and slammed her wrench on the computer control panel. The automatic locks clamped down, locking the vehicle up.

 

“ WHAT THE FUCK!?” Brigitte crouched down to one of the hover ports and began undoing the stabilizers. “ Hey! Get away from my car!” The man tried frantically to open his door but the locks wouldn't budge.

 

Brigitte looked up at the man and smiled. “ It seems you have a issue here. Let me take a look.”

 

“ What did you do to my screen!?”

 

“ I hit it in the right spot to fool your car into thinking it was being stolen. So now the locks won't work until the security code has been entered, which is provided by the makers…” The man opened his mouth to argue but she continued. “... Which is only given to the registered owner. Which I can assume isn't you?” She said with a wink.

 

The man turned red and unbuckled his seat belt. The man was climbing in the back seat to test the rest of the doors while Brigitte moved on to the next hover port.

 

Her heart was racing. She knew there would be an impending fight on her hands. Maybe the man wouldn't climb out the window and she'd have enough time to fix her van and escape. She shook her head at the thought. Very unlikely.

 

She was so pissed. At first, it was at the idiot, who was now trying to climb out the window feet first. But now it was mostly at herself for losing her cool. It's only a matter of time before he gets out and they go to blows. There would be no way she'd get into Overwatch then. They wouldn't take on someone who starts fights in parking lots.

 

“ What's going on here?” A very clear and strong voice demanded. Brigitte looked up and just noticed a military Jeep parked off to the side and few men and women in uniform. She stood up and dusted herself off.

 

“ I was, you see this guy…” She heard a loud clang as the two front hover ports cut out and the front of the car hit the ground. The man, who was halfway through the window, popped out completely due to the drop.

 

The man stood up and walked right up to Brigitte and the officers. At the same time, an Overwatch officer pushed through the others to get a look for herself.

 

The man visibly paled and deflated at the sight of the officer. He stood at attention and saluted. Brigitte looked at him and then the woman. She was tall and serious. Brigitte found herself standing straighter too.

 

“ I don't make a habit of repeating myself, so I'm only asking once more, What's going on? You two are backing things up for miles!”

 

Brigitte opened her mouth to respond but the man beat her to it.

 

“ Both our vehicles broke down, captain. She was only trying to help.” That was not what Brigitte was going to say. She looked at the man, who shifted his gaze to her for only a second before turning back to the captain.

 

“ Is that right?” The captain said. The captain looked at his car and what a disaster it was. She shook her head. ‘She's not buying it. Oh crap she's not buying it.’ Brigitte thought. The captain then looked at Brigitte's smoking van and her eyes grew wide.

 

“ Wait a second.” The captain walked up to Brigitte's van and looked it over. Brigitte turned to follow the captain but was stopped by one of the soldiers.

 

The captain pulled open the side hatch and looked inside. She saw the armor and the blueprints. The captain walked inside and looked around.

 

Brigitte was growing nervous. What was the issue? What was she doing inside? Was she taking a look at her armor?

 

The captain moved some papers around and locked eyes on one of the blue prints. She traced her finger on the lion design on the image of what looked like a shield. The captain smiled.

 

The captain stepped out and closed the door behind her. She approached Brigitte with a smile that looked like she was holding back a laugh.

 

“ This van…” She started. “ … is it yours?”

 

Brigitte wiped some sweat from her forehead. “ No, not mine. I'm taking care of it for now.” The van moaned from the engine. “ Well I'm trying to take care of it. It belongs to-”

 

“ Reinhardt, right?”

 

“ Uh yeah.” She said confusingly. “ Reinhardt, that's absolutely right. How did you know?”

 

The captain laughed. “ You must be Brigitte!” She dove her hand out for her to shake. Which she did but very slowly. She was trying to figure out who this woman was. The man looked even more confused.

 

“ Yes. Hi. Do we know each other?”

 

“ We've never met no, but I've heard about you! Reinhardt never stops talking about his squire. Especially now that he knows you are joining.”

 

“ So you are close to Reinhardt?” The captain put her hands on her hips. “ Very close. He and my mother have worked in Overwatch since the beginning. They all raised me.” Brigitte was still confused as to who this woman was.

 

“ I'm sorry but, who are you?” She cautiously asked.

 

“ I'm captain Fareeha Amari.” Brigitte's eyes widened with shock.

 

“ Amari!? Ana Amari!? You're her…”

 

“ Daughter, yes.” She smiled.

 

“ That's incredible! Hi! Hello it's nice to meet you Fareeha. I mean captain Fareeha!” She said while shaking her hand again. Captain Fareeha laughed. The Captain looked at the vehicles again and shook her head.

 

“ These things don't seem to be moving anytime soon. Hop on my car and I'll take you to the check in. You are in the wrong line anyways.”

 

“ I am?” She asked while they walked to the military vehicle.

 

“ Yes, there is a separate area for the ones who have been recommended by current Overwatch officers.” Brigitte looked back at how long the traffic was and thought about how long she had waited in the wrong line. She scoffed.

 

The captain hopped into the Jeep and held her hand out to help Brigitte up. “ And don't worry about the van. I'll send a truck to tow it to the yard.” Brigitte hopped up and sat down in the back.

 

“ Oh is this man with you?” Captain Amari asked, indicating the man who was still at a loss of words as to what just happened. Brigitte and the man glared at each other. Unreadable to others but completely understood by each other. The invisible tension grew thick.

 

“ Yes he is, captain. I met him on the way here.” The captain nodded. “ Alright, hop in.” The man released his balled up fist he didn't even knew he had. He was so shocked it took him a minute to get his feet moving. He hopped inside the vehicle and sat next to Brigitte. With everyone settled, Captain Amari started the vehicle and drove towards the base, leaving the long line of cars in the dust.

 

The man leaned over and whispered in her ear. “ What the hell are you doing?”

 

“ We're even now.” The man shook his head and leaned on his side of the Jeep without a word. Brigitte smiled and did the same.


	4. The Magician, The Cyborg and The Assassin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay this took me forever to sit and write. I apologize for this less interesting chapter you are about to read but I have people to introduce and set up to get through. Again thank you for reading.

Captain Amari stopped the Jeep outside a light blue two story building inside the base. There were a lot of people standing around looking over papers and discussing with each other. Captain Amari turned around to talk to the two in the back. 

 

“ This is the the screening office. Just go inside and present your letter.”

 

“Screening office? What is that?” Brigitte asked.

 

“ This is where Overwatch officers decide where a recruit will fit best within the ranks. They start screening after boot camp.” Brigitte nodded in understanding. This was unexpected. It looked like those officers would decide where she will be within the organization. That did not bode well with her, but she was strong and had many years of hand to hand combat training. She was confident she would impress the officers. 

 

The two recruits hopped out of the vehicle. Captain Amari saluted them and then drove off. Brigitte walked forward towards the building but stopped when she heard the man's footsteps go in the other direction. She turned around. 

 

“ Hey, where are you going?” She asked to his back. The man looked like he was going to keep on walking but then last minute talked himself out of it. He turned slightly to look at her.

 

“ Not everyone knows an Overwatch officer to write them letters of recommendation. I have to go to the other office.” He turned and continued walking in the other direction. 

 

Brigitte watched him for a bit. Then she finally found the courage to yell out to him.

 

“ Thank you! And I’m sorry about your car!” The man never turned around but she could see him shake his head before he rounded the corner of a warehouse. 

 

“ I swear I’ll fix it.” She said more to herself than anything. Brigitte turned to look up at the light blue building. It was time.

  
  
  


Once inside the building, she saw multiple desks with groups of people around them. It was loud with excited people chatting and swapping letters. At the entrance was a small desk with a small older woman behind it. She had large oval glasses and she was flipping through a large packet. Brigitte observed a young woman approach the woman and was directed to one of the other desks further into the building. Brigitte decided to walk up to her too. It didn’t do her any good just standing around like a lost child.

 

“ Hi. Excuse me, I’m not sure where I am supposed to-” 

 

“ Letter?” The woman blurted out.

 

“ Oh yes. Here you-” The woman snatched it almost before Brigitte had even unfolded it. The woman looked down at it to read it with her bifocals. Brigitte stood awkwardly with her arms crossed so she wouldn’t fidget while the woman looked her letter over. Brigitte noted that there were a lot of people in here. Some of them looked extremely intense others looked starstruck just like her. There was a girl flipping two blades between her fingers while she waited in line. Another man looked like he had just been shot out of a cannon and Brigitte’s eyes swept over a young man with large headphones jamming to a song only he could hear. Everyone of these people were recommended by an elite Overwatch agent. 

 

“ Reinhardt huh? You are the first one sent by him.” She handed the letter back to Brigitte. “ You must have something really special about you, then.” Brigitte turned red and was about to downplay herself but the woman never gave her a moment before speaking again. “ Here is your contract. This needs to be filled out before tomorrow, the sooner the better. Make sure to read the whole thing and save you the trouble of being surprised by anything. On the last page will be your ID number for bootcamp and your assigned area.” Brigitte flipped through to the last page to find her barrack number. “ Any other questions?” The woman asked without looking up from her paperwork.

 

“ Where can I find the barracks?” 

  
  
  
  


Overwatch was indeed growing. There were so many people signing up that it’s easy to mistake the base for an actual military base. Although similar in organization, it must not be confused as such. Overwatch did not represent any one country. They were looking for people who shared the same ideas for global peace.There were multiple tests for every individual. In knowledge, combat, and teamwork. Not everyone would make the cut and would have to return home and wait for another chance next year. 

 

There was also a separate category for special agents. These agents brought something special to the force such as a special power or intellect or just gifted. These agents were tested separately and more thoroughly for a place among the Overwatch elite force. Most of the recruits that were recommended were recommended for a reason and would be tested to their limits.

 

Brigitte found the barracks after spending over an hour of searching. The directions that woman gave made no sense. It didn't help that she spoke extremely fast and with no punctuation. The new base was huge. It was complete with multiple obstacle and training grounds. All designed by Winston and her father. The base was adjacent to Overwatch's main base, which was about a mile and a half away. Thats where Reinhardt and her father were. Knowing that relaxed Brigitte’s nerves a little. 

 

Once she finally reached the correct bunker, there were already people unpacking and getting settled. She walked the halls to get to her assigned room. The building was alive with people shouting and testing out their skills and strengths. She couldn’t help but grin with her own excitement. Finally after getting through the mass of excited recruits, she made it to her room.

 

The sliding door to the room was locked open as people moved in and out of the room with luggage. A woman walking in front of her had walked in with a large bag and set it on one of the beds. Brigitte stood in the doorway. There were a total of four beds in the room. All of which was taken except one by the bathroom door. She looked at each of her roommates. The woman with the large bag undid the velcro and let it unravel on her bed. Inside was a dozen of different blades and knives. The woman traced her fingers on every single one as if she was zoning out. Brigitte noted her heavily scarred hands. 

 

Across the room was an older man with short salt and pepper hair . He had just finished putting his clothes away in the dresser closest to his bed. He stood up and noticed Brigitte standing in the doorway. He gave a wide smile with a small stiff wave. Brigitte smiled back and took that as the cue to stop standing in the doorway like a weirdo. “ Hello everyone.” She said a little louder than what most would consider normal. A dainty voice behind Brigitte responded back.

 

“ Hiya!” A short woman walked in after Brigitte and sat on her own bed. “ You must be our fourth guy. Oh, uh girl.” 

 

“ Looks that way.” Brigitte smiled and took a look at her designated bed area. She didn’t have her things as they were still in her van. That would be her next mission: Find out where her van was towed to.

 

The older man walked over and stuck out his hand for a shake. “ Hey! The names Felix.” 

 

“Brigitte.” She shook his hand.

 

“ Wow! What a grip!” He laughed. 

 

“ Yours could use some work.” She said with a similar joking tone, but as she pulled her hand away she took the man’s hand with her. She immediately gasped and instinctively dropped the detached hand. “ I am so so sorry!” She dropped to her knees as fast as possible to pick up his hand. As soon as she did, Felix started laughing. Brigitte picked up the false hand and looked up at him. “ You are laughing?” She was so confused. The other two roommates were just as in shock.

 

He wiped a tear from his eye. “ I’m so sorry! I had to! You don’t know how long I’ve had that fake hand on!” His real hand wiggled out of his sleeve. Brigitte stood up and was still trying to come down from her almost heart attack. 

 

“ I uh, I don’t understand.” She handed him his fake hand. 

 

“ You see, I had planned on doing the gag sooner but could you believe no one has given me the chance to shake their hand?!” 

 

The woman with the knives spoke. “ You mean you’ve been unpacking and working with a fake hand? Basically doing everything one handed… only to shake hands with someone… for a joke?” 

 

Felix smiled at her. “ Well I wouldn’t of had to wait so long had any of you stopped to introduce yourselves.” He laughed. The woman rolled her eyes while the smaller girl softly apologized.

 

“ How very interesting.” Brigitte said with genuine interest.

 

“ Love these gags. You see, this is why they call me The Magician back home.”  The man beamed.

 

Brigitte’s eyes grew with excitement. “ A magician!? Really!? You have to do another trick!” She demanded.

 

Felix laughed. “Sure! Hey you two…” He said to the other recruits. “ Come over! I need an audience.” The young girl slid off her bed and walked over. The other woman did as well but took her time with it. Almost like it pained her to participate. 

 

Felix ran his hand through his hair and fixed his sleeves. 

 

“ And what is your name, miss?” He asked the shorter woman first.

 

“ I'm Hope. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself sooner.” Felix bent down and grasped her hand gently.

 

“ No worries, Brigitte's reaction was everything I expected and more.” Brigitte scoffed at him.

 

“ A true professional.” The knife woman said with a blasé tone. Felix held his hand out to the woman. “ You're name, madam?” 

 

She rolled her eyes but gave him her hand anyways. “ Lily.”

 

Felix took her hand gently and kissed the top of it. “ Enchanté, Lily.” Lily took her hand back. 

 

“ Okay enough. Just get on with the trick.” Felix nodded and fanned his hand in front of Lily's face. She recoiled slightly at how close his hand was to her face.

 

“ What are you doing?” She said with more worry in her voice than anger. Felix flipped his wrist and snapped his finger and… nothing happened. 

 

Hope and Brigitte looked from Lily to Felix waiting for the trick. After a quite second or two, Brigitte walked up to Felix. “ Did I miss something?” She asked.

 

“ Miss Lily, it seems you are missing one of your knives, is that correct?”Asked Felix. Lily nodded quietly. “ You would be very upset if it turned out someone had taken it, right?” Again, she nodded.

 

“ Brigitte? You wouldn't happen to of seen it by chance?” 

 

“ Uh, no.” She patted her overalls instinctively like she was looking for her phone. Suddenly her hand landed on something in a pocket she knew she had left empty. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears now. She stuck her hand in her pocket and slowly pulled out one of Lily's throwing knives. 

 

Brigitte was stunned. She looked at Felix, who was smiling ear to ear. She stepped forward towards Lily to return the knife. “ That… that was incredible. I didn't even feel when you put the knife-” Lily lunged at Brigitte with another, longer knife that she had on her. Brigitte stumbled backwards to dodge the jab. Felix dropped his grin and replaced it with a look of dread. 

 

“ Shit!” He reached out to stop Lily but really couldn't do much with her slashing her knife. She slashed across his knuckles. He seethed and Hope pulled him back. In the meantime, Brigitte tried to get up from the ground but Lily pounced on her, knife pointed downward. Brigitte grabbed her wrists. “ What are you doing!?” She shouted. “ It was just a trick!” But, Lily just pressed harder. Brigitte pushed back with all her might. 

 

“ What's gotten into her!?” Hope shouted at Felix. 

 

“ My device is malfunctioning. I thought I fixed this!” He ran to pull Lily off Brigitte.

 

“ Device!? What device?” 

 

“ It's how I hypnotize people! I'm still working on it.” Brigitte managed to hear what Felix was saying. She looked at Lily's hand and saw a tiny  thin bronze device on her. She couldn't grab at it without getting stabbed though. Felix yanked at Lily's shoulders. This gave Brigitte a small window to snatch the device off the back of her hand. 

 

Almost immediately Lily went slack. Her hand dropped her knife and it bounced on Brigitte's chest and slid off on the floor without harm. She was still upright and sitting on Brigitte's body, just not trying to kill her. She blinked a few times. She opened her mouth to say something but it was like she didn't know what to say. 

 

“ What… uh...  what happened?” She finally said in almost a whimper. Brigitte laughed nervously.

 

“ Now we all know not to touch any of your things, huh.” Although Brigitte meant to lighten the mood, Lily was beyond pissed and embarrassed. She picked up Brigitte by her overall straps and then shoved her down harshly. Then she got off her and stormed off but not without hitting Felix in the stomach. 

 

“ Yeah, I deserve that…” He said with the air knocked out of him.

 

Brigitte finally got up off the ground. She rubbed the back of her head. “ That could've gone better.” 

 

“ No kidding.” Hope agreed then turned around to face Felix. “ What the heck was that all about!?” 

 

Felix immediately went on the defensive. “ What do you mean!?” 

 

“ Why would you use that… that-”

 

“ Chip.” Brigitte finished for her. 

 

“ Yes! That chip!”

 

“ What kind of magician uses something like this?” Brigitte asked when she handed felix the chip back.

 

Felix could finally breathe well enough to respond without sounding pathetic. “ I am a master at sleight of hand, don’t let my reliance on my gadgets fool you. But I have been working on creating illusions and tools to help out in the field. I thought this one was ready to go.”

 

Hope held her hand out. “ May I?” Felix nodded enthusiastically and plopped it it in her hand.

 

“ Illusions out in the field?” Brigitte could imagine seeing an army of well dressed soldiers combating the enemy with top hats and decks of cards. She started smiling when she imagined herself pulling a bouquet of man eating flowers out of her hat. It was Felix’s voice that snapped her out of her day dream.

 

“ Yeah! I have a few ideas that could give Overwatch an ‘unseen’ advantage. With the resources that Overwatch can give me, I’ll be able to bring my ideas to life!” 

 

“ That’s incredible, Felix! So that chip freezes the wearer?” Asked Brigitte.

 

“ It’s supposed to put the wearer in a trance like state by electric currents, but its such a sensitive frequency that I’m having trouble getting it just right. Most of the time it makes one emotion way too extreme.”

 

“ As we just experienced.” Brigitte laughed and rubbed at the sore spot on the back of her head. Hope had been quiet during their conversation. She was very interested in Felix’s device. She flipped it in her palm. 

 

“ Hey, Felix.” 

 

“ Yes my dear?” He turned to Hope.

 

“ Do you mind if I take this down to the shop? I could take a look at it and see if there is anything I can do.” 

 

“ Uh…” Felix looked as though he was having trouble organizing his thoughts. 

 

“ I totally understand if it makes you uncomfortable. I get it. It's your device and-” 

 

“ No I have no issue! None at all! I was just taken back by your offer. Do you know about these things?” Now it was Hope’s turn. Hope smiled and gave a small theatrical bow to both Felix and Brigitte. “ Why yes of course I do, sir. I’m the Venice Cyborg.” That statement meant nothing to Brigitte but apparently meant a whole lot to Felix. He did a horrible job of hiding his excitement.

 

“ You’re the… the… the…!” Felix stammered. Brigitte looked the girl over to see any signs of hardware. She was well covered in her clothes so she saw nothing.

 

“ Venice Cyborg? I’m sorry, I’m not familiar.” Brigitte confessed. Felix looked offended at this. All Brigitte did was shrug in response.

 

“ That's okay!” She chuckled sweetly. “ I’m a robotics engineer. A very good one if I may toot my own horn. So I know a thing or two when it comes to this stuff.” Brigitte was excited to hear that one of her roommates had similar skills to her.  _ Perhaps we could team up sometime while we train here. _ She thought to herself.

 

Hope spoke to Felix again. “ So I’ll take this to the workshop see what I can do. Are you able to join me?” Felix’s face went from happy to disappointed almost immediately. “ Unfortunately, I need to finish settling in and check in with my wife. Let her know I’m safe.” 

 

Hope nodded in understanding. “ No problem, I’ll give you an update after dinner then.” 

 

“ Thank you, Hope” 

 

Brigitte stepped in quickly just before Hope could make it out the door. “ Actually, could I tag along? I would love to know where the workshop is here. They might have my van there.” Hope smiled and motioned for her to follow.

 

“ Yeah! I’ll show you!”

 

“ Great! Thank you!” She jogged to the door. She almost was out of the room when she turned and waved goodbye at Felix. “ It was nice meeting you!”

 

“ You too, Brigitte! I look forward to our time together!” Brigitte smiled and then turned to catch up with Hope.

  
  
  


The sun was just about to slip under the horizon. Most of the base was covered in the shadows of the many large buildings that it was composed of. But out on the tarmac of the airfield there was still an evening glow. Hope had been giving Brigitte a recap tour of the base. Brigitte had seen most while trying to find her room but now she knew what each building was actually for. Brigitte was amazed at how much Hope knew about the new base considering she was a new recruit herself.

 

They walked along the edge of the tarmac towards a large concrete warehouse that had huge metal doors. “ And here we are. The workshop. This building is connected to multiple smaller workshops and storage facilities. But this one the the main workshop. Large and state of the art. Complete with almost every tool and equipment available. But still no hard light software.” Hope shook her head in disappointment.

 

“ I know you got here before me but you know so much about the new Overwatch base. How?” Brigitte asked.

 

Hope put her hands on her pocket and strolled into one of the workshop's bay doors. There were veteran soldiers working on various projects. The sound of metal hitting metal was music to Brigitte's ears. “ Well… I helped build the base.” 

 

“ Seriously!? That's amazing!” Hope rolled her eyes and played down Brigitte's excitement. “ So you got to work with my father then.” Brigitte said while she smoothed her hand on the metal of what looked to be the nose of a jet. 

 

“ I worked with a lot of people. It's possible.” Hope walked towards the back where they stored their parts and junk. “ What is his name?”

 

Brigitte knew exactly what to expect when someone found out who her father was. Although Torbjörn was no movie star, with all the Overwatch publicity and notoriety, Torbjörn Lindholm was something of a household name. Especially in the engineering community.

 

“ Torbjörn.” Brigitte turned to look at Hope. Sure enough, her face said it all. If her jaw wasn't attached to her, she'd have to pick it up off the floor.

 

“ Torbjörn Lindholm!? That's your dad!? He is the one who recommended me!” Hope looked Brigitte head to toe. “You don't look…” She faked coughed. “ … like him very much. Like at all.” 

 

Brigitte laughed. “ Not really I suppose.” She could see her van parked towards one of the bay doors in the back. She walked to it. “ I think I'm a little bit taller than him.” She joked. 

 

Brigitte opened the side door to her van and took a quick look before stepping inside. Hope leaned in a bit to take a peak. Brigitte started moving her mess around in search of all her clothes and toiletries. Hope looked at the armor on the workbench and eyeballed all the blueprints that were scattered around. 

 

Brigitte felt bad she was taking so long and that Hope was just waiting. “ So a cyborg huh?” She decided to ask her about the whole Venice Cyborg thing. Hope looked at Brigitte and nodded. “ Where? Unless you mastered making your parts look fleshy.” 

 

Hope smiled. “ No not quite yet! I replaced my spine and my lower half.” Brigitte stepped out of the van with a large duffle bag under each arm. “ That sounds painful.” She said. They both started heading back to the large bay door. Hope just shrugged. “ Of course the healing sucked, but I had a lot of help and again, not to toot my own horn…” 

 

“ Go ahead and toot!” 

 

“ … but I made the parts myself. So they fit perfectly.” When they stepped back out onto the tarmac the sun was completely gone and the sky was dark. 

 

Brigitte remained quite for a bit. She wasn't sure how to bring up her next question with her new roommate. She must of had a strange look on her face because Hope seemed to know exactly what was on her mind. 

 

“ It's genetic. My condition. My body was slowly attacking itself and it was rapidly eating away at my spinal cord. So I got to work as soon as possible.” Hope started doing some lunges to prove how limber she was. “ With a robotic spinal cord, I don't have to worry about becoming paralyzed.” 

 

“ What if your body attacks a different part of you? Surly there is treatment by now. I'm sure Overwatch's Mercy could heal you.” Hope stopped her stretches . 

 

“ I like my body this way. Building machines is my passion. It's like I'm becoming my work.” She shrugged. “ Kinda hokey huh!” 

 

Brigitte laughed. “ No! Not 'hokey’ at all. I actually really understand. Trust me.” Brigitte smiled and readjusted her bag straps. She was ready to walk back to her room to unpack finally. 

 

“ You are building all that armor, right?” Hope added as she was about to walk off. Brigitte nodded. “ Is that why you are here? To design armor for Overwatch?” 

 

Brigitte shook her head. “ I'm here to wear it.” Hope smiled. “ Awesome!” 


	5. "Who's Jerry?"

With the first night at the new Overwatch base over and done with, Brigitte’s life fell into a strict regimen. Bootcamp would last for three months. During this time the new recruits were trained in Overwatch protocol, physical fitness, and intelligence. She and her roommates were woken up at 5 am every morning with 30 minutes to get ready and then an hour to spend on breakfast. After that they were pushed and drilled for hours. The daily training finished around 5pm, then the recruits could work on what they needed to for the screening. Which Brigitte found out that it would be like specific tryouts done in groups. That excited her. She didn’t know what exactly these tryouts would entail but it had been a long time since she had actually sparred and battled anyone. There was a couple  scraps here and there in Eichenwald but nothing like when she and Reinhardt travelled together.

 Brigitte spent every hour after training in the main workshop where she worked on her armor. This place was just what she needed. She had everything at her disposal. All kinds of metals such as light weight metal or fire resistant panelling.

 The initial design for the body parts of her armor was not as sturdy as she had planned. When she finished her first design she had taken it to one of the smaller training rooms. She set the room's program for A.I melee training bots. She didn't have her shield. That was currently laying open in the hardware room half finished. Brigitte was good, but creating code and working with force field technology was not her strongest area. She figured she'd only test her armor's maneuverability and strength.

 Brigitte picked up one of the practice blades to use for the moment. She was still open to ideas about a weapon. Lily offered to teach her how to use throwing knives, but it didn't seem practical with her position in the field. Brigitte's imagination kept coming back to Reinhardt's hammer. But that would be much too big so making that smaller seemed like the way to go. But then she imagined her father's hammer, which was great for quick fixes in battle, but not for actual fighting. She sighed. _I'll figure something out._

 She stepped into the active zone and the lights turned on. The bots came out of a slot on the other side of the room. Brigitte tested out how easily she could move her arms and legs while the bots rolled closer to her. She twirled the practice blade in her hand and readied her stance.

 “ Okay! Bring it!” She lunged at the closest bot and slashed it across it's front with a battle cry. She pulled back her blade and slashed the next bot behind the first one. She pulled out again but before she could get to the next, something collided with her back and sent her forward. The hit jerked her good. She immediately took an extra step to stabilize herself and turned to prepare for the next attack.

 The bots were getting faster with their approach. Brigitte slashed the arm of one of training bots who was bringing down their club and lifted her leg to push it back. The armor was crazy light. She barely felt any resistance. The blade she used wasn't bad either, she noted.

 Suddenly a club hit her gut heavily. She instantly curled inward and seethed. She regripped her blade and straightened out with a frustrated grunt to deliver a blow to the bot that hit her. Before she managed to do so, another blow to her shoulder blade knocked her off balanced. She stumbled into another bot and held on to it to keep from falling. “Whoa!” She pushed off the training bot and was met with another blow, this time to her chest and she was down. This armor was way too thin and light. She could feel every blow as if she wasn’t wearing armor at all. She called out the voice command to stop the program before she had all the bots beating her to a pulp.

 Brigitte laid on that floor with her her bruised body, her mind going a mile a minute with ways to improve her armor. “ Thicker metal. Probably over the most important areas…” She mumbled while she rubbed at her collar bone.

 

So it was back to the workshop for her. For the next three months she woke up, trained, worked on her armor and shield, slept, and repeat. The most interesting thing that her roommates noticed was how she never slowed down or stopped. No matter how bruised or sore she was from testing and training, no matter how long she ended up working at the shop, no matter how tired she may of been, she would be the first to rise and the last one back in the room.

 The screening was only a few weeks away now and it was clear almost everyone was ready. All over base people could be heard or seen working and using their equipment or skills. The special class area looked like a circus with people showing off their skills.

 Inside the software work room, Hope screwed shut a small panel on a pair of light skates. “ Here you go Lucio, these should grip the wall every time now.” She handed the skates to the young celebrity.

 “ Sick! Lets lace em up!” He took them and sat on the floor to put them on. Once clicked into place, he stood up and smoothly glided back and forth. “ Aw yeah! Let’s roll!” He busted forward and wall rode up and across the back wall. Everyone around stopped to cheer him on. He rode the wall forward and once he finished one lap around the lab, he flipped backwards and went for another lap. He was having a great time with his new skates. He was having such a good time he didn’t notice how low he was getting on the wall and he smacked into one of the wall computers. His skates disconnected from the wall and sent him flying. He hurled down towards where Brigitte was quietly working.

 Time slowed to a crawl. Brigitte locked eyes with a terrified and sorry Lucio. Instinctively, Brigitte rose her arm up. A bright blue force field stretched in front of her. Lucio smacked right into it. Brigitte lifted her arm up at the moment he landed and was able to flip him over her and her work table. Lucio landed on the ground with an ‘oomph’ and the force shield shattered.

The room was finally dead silent. Brigitte looked at her arm and groaned softly. She could tell by the smoke coming from her gauntlet that she needed to open it up again and reset it. She walked over to Lucio before she did anything. She held her hand out to him. Lucio sighed and accepted her assistance. “ I’m sorry, Brigitte. I hope I didn’t do any major damage to your glove.” Brigitte shook her head. “ Nah, it wasn’t very strong to begin with. You were the perfect test for my shield.” She smiled.

 Lucio laughed and apologized again before taking off down the hall. Brigitte looked at her gauntlet and pulled it off. She sat it on the workbench and sat on her stool. She did not want to start her work all over again. Brigitte rubbed her temple. Hope wandered over to her side.

 “ Hey, everything good?” She asked. Brigitte took a deep breath inward before responding.

 “ Yeah everything’s fine. Just not too excited to fight with this thing.” Hope looked down at the gauntlet.

 “ Why are you using an energy force field as your shield?”

 “ Well, the idea I had was to be as lightweight as possible and still be protected. I want to be able to help my team as well as protect myself. This was what came to mind.” She picked up her multi tool and flipped it between her finger.

 Hope looked at her gauntlet for a minute while the mechanic pretended to start working. Hope bit her lip in thought when all of a sudden it hit her.

 “Hey!” She sprang for Brigitte's hand. “ Come! Follow me! Bring your device.” Stunned, Brigitte did as she said. “Oh!? Okay?”

 

Hope led the way down the main corridor to a different software room. An empty one. She switched on the light and the room filled with soft light blue lighting. “Here. Set it here.” Hope walked to a desk that was already filled with papers and electric parts. Brigitte assumed this was her regular working station.

 “ Do you mind if I show you something?”

 Brigitte shook her head. “ No not at all. Show me a thing or two.” She smiled.

Hope nodded and opened up a panel on the gauntlet. She pulled over a large magnifying glass and set it in front of the device. They could both see the inside clearly.

 “ Okay right away I can see what you're doing. And it's not wrong. Just not strong enough.” Brigitte leaned over and looked at where she was pointing.

 “ For a shield to be this wide and this long AND be strong enough to keep its form, then you are going to need to boost the strength of the force signal.”

 “Okay that makes sense. How would I do that? I thought the output was strong enough. In fact, this is already as strong as these components come. At least here at Overwatch.”

 Hope snapped her fingers into finger guns. “ You are correct, but there is a way to boost these. We just have to get creative.”

 Brigitte pulled up a nearby chair and sat next to Hope as she showed her a trick she used to boost her technology's strength when she had no other option.

 

 

 

 

Screening Day for the Overwatch elite had finally come. Everyone rushed to the tarmac where two large Holo screens floated listing the areas and teams that would be tested. Everyone was geared up and more than eager to give it their all.

 Felix squinted at the screens for a bit. He wore a dark grey jumpsuit with a utility belt around his waist dotted with little pouches. “ Looks like Brigitte will be joining us on the raid course. Nice!” He called back to Lily, who was also decked out in her gear. She wore an all black tactical outfit with thick padding on her limbs and chest. Her larger knives were visible on her side. There was no doubt she had her smaller ones on her too even though they were not visible. She pinned her bangs with a hair pin as a last touch up. “ Well where is she? I want to head over already.”

 Hope squeezed by a group of rifle men and saw her roommates. “ Hey guys!” She took one look at Felix and tried to hide her laughter.

 “ What? What's so funny?” Felix asked.

 “ You a ghost buster?” Even Lily had to laugh.  “ Hey yeah, that's another good one. I've been calling him the Exterminator all morning.”

 Felix scoffed at his roommates. “ You guys just don't get it. It's functional!”

 “ For taking out the garbage.” Brigitte chimed in. The group turned around to greet her.

 “Brigitte!” Both Hope and Felix cheered.

 “ About time you showed up.” Lily drolled.

 “Sorry, just some last minute checks.” As she said this, she held her arms out to show off her armor. It was bulky red armor but it wasn't huge. It did make Brigitte look big, but she was already a big girl. She also had an up to the times version of a mace latched to her hip. Everyone was impressed. Lily even showed it in her face.

 “ It looks great, Brigitte! Is that a mace? Oh! What about the shield!?” Hope jumped with excitement.

 Brigitte readied her stance and lifted her arm chest high. It looked as if she had a metallic lion head stuck to her arm. From that lion head exploded a blue force field. It was large enough to cover her whole body. Hope wiped a proud tear for her friend.

 “ Amazing.”

 “ Well what are we waiting for?!” Brigitte was trotting backwards towards the Raid arena. “ Let's get a move on!”

 “ I'll see you guys after.” Hope waved goodbye at her friends.

 “ Wait you're not coming?” Brigitte asked.

 Hope shook her head. “ Oh, no. I want to build new technology and improve new overwatch bases. You guys are the crazy ones who want to fight on the front lines. Two completely different tests.” She laughed.

 “ Oh…” Brigitte mumbled confusingly. “ Well who's our other teammate?”

 Felix turned around to squint at the holo screens again. “ Someone named… Jerry?”


	6. Jerry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a long chapter, I'm sorry. I hope it's at least interesting. Thank you!

“  YOU!?” Brigitte said louder than she intended. The group found their last teammate standing at the start of the course. This course was in one of the outdoors training grounds. This one was also the largest.

 “ Of course it's you.” It was the man she fought with from the first day at the base. Brigitte totally forgot about him. He stood lightly dressed in a tee-shirt and jeans. His hair was longer now. Like he figured out he didn't need to get a military crew cut here. The only thing he had on him was a side arm and a rifle strapped to his back.

 “ Well I feel underdressed.” He mocked after looking at everyone's gear.

 “ Didn't you get the memo? This is to be treated like a real mission.” Lily was annoyed at his relaxed and amateur attitude.

 “ So you're name is Jerry. My name is Brigitte Lindholm.” She interrupted hoping to keep the tension down. “ It about time we actually introduce ourselves.” She held her hand out for a handshake. Jerry made no effort to do the same.

 “ Let's gets things clear. Lindholm. We…” He motioned his hand between them. “ … are not even. Not even close. I'm here to make it into Overwatch and to do that I need to pass this screening. So keep that in mind.”

 Brigitte dropped her hand and took a step closer to Jerry. She was taller than him by a couple of inches. “ That's what we are all here for, Jerry.” She said in a low voice. She was trying to keep her frustration bottled up.

 “ Just making sure we are all on the same page. Don't need you getting in my way, again.”

 That was enough for Brigitte. She looked like she was about to put her hands on him when Felix stood in between them.

 “ Hey guys! Looks like the officer is coming to explain the objective! So let's not fight and lose our only healer. Okay?”

 Jerry scoffed. “ She's protecting us? Oh man.” He shook his head.

 “ Okay!” Brigitte took a swing at Jerry over Felix  but he ducked. Jerry let his rifle drop off his back and was ready to throw down. Luckily the Overwatch officer finally approached the team.

 “ Hello ‘soon to be heros’ and who are acting as such” He said without looking up from the tablet he had in his hand. The team stopped squabbling and stood at attention with the exception of Brigitte and Jerry, who stared at each other with hateful eyes. The air was still thick with tension that the whole team could feel.

 “ O'l right for you guys your objective is to reach the base hidden in the woods. You will need to breach the base and retrieve the secret device. The device must be deactivated before it leaves the base, mkay. There will be security defenses. It's up to you and your team to decide how to handle them. And lastly, this is a test and will be graded. The Overwatch Council will be looking at teamwork, leadership and personal skill. So do a good job out there and please don't get hurt. It's a lot of paperwork.” The officer finally looked up from his tablet. “ Any questions?”

 He looked up at the team and after the world's longest second Lily spoke. “ When can we start?!” The officer looked at his watch. “ Now I guess.” He turned and gave a thumbs up towards the watch room. A loud buzzer came from the loud speakers to signal the area was activated.

 Lily took out her largest blade and twirled it in her hands. “ Alright, let's do this.

“ So, first we have to find the base.” Felix said while he strolled into the tree line. “ Right, should be easy. How big can this fake forest be.”

 “ Miles long, friend.” Brigitte said patting his shoulder, instantly deflating Felix. The rest crossed into the tree line and began their search. Even though this was a man made forest, it was thick and filled with all kinds of foliage and uneven ground.

 Brigitte stopped and listened to the sounds around her. She was impressed. She could hear the soft rumbling of a fast moving river. She remembered her father drawing up plans for the world's fastest lazy river. This was not how she imagined the use for it. She always figured some water park wanted to get on one of those most extreme shows.

 Brigitte was about to head towards where the rest of her team walked off to when she heard twigs crack and leaves rustling. She turned around and saw a slight glimpse of Jerry as he detached from the group. She rolled her eyes.

 The group made it to the river. The area was clear of trees and made a good place to stop and get their bearings. Lily walked to the edge of the river and looked upstream. “ We should probably spread out and search this area. Let's all go in separate direction and meet back here in 30. If you find anything, do not attempt to infiltrate on your own. Meet back here and wait for the team. Okay?” She turned around and only saw Felix. “ Where is Brigitte and Jerry?!”

 Felix looked around, just noticing they were gone. “ Oh! Uh, good question.” Lily pinched the bridge of her nose.

 

 Jerry slid his rifle to the front of his body and sat on the ground. He let himself slide down a steep slope. He stood up and continued his trek through the dense woods. He stopped and looked around. The sounds of bird chirping  made listening harder. Without any leads to the base's location, he could be heading further away from the test. So he moved slowly and carefully, looking for clues along the way. He wiped a bug off his chin and was going to keep moving forward when something caught his attention. He saw something move in the corner of his eyes. He couldn't tell what it was, if anything, but he was going to check everything out.

 He crouched and peered over some brush. It was a training bot painted in green and brown camouflage rolling along a clearing in the trees. He lifted his rifle to his eye. He lined his crosshairs with the head. He started to slide his finger to the trigger when something yanked his rifle to the side. Jerry almost yelled out but once he saw who had done it he immediately froze. Brigitte held a finger to her lips to tell him to stay quiet. Jerry looked from her face to where his rifle was pointed. She held the rifle to her chest. He didn't know if she did that on purpose or if she was not thinking. Either way, Jerry paled and became instantly sweaty. He slowly moved his finger away from the trigger. He was so close to firing. That scared him. This woman had to be dense. Inside and out.

 Brigitte let his rifle go and looked out to the training bot. Jerry leaned close to her. “ Are you insane!?” He whisper yelled. “I was about to shoot! I could of-”

 “ We need to follow that bot. It'll lead to the base.” Brigitte stood up and looked around.

 “ Are you listening to me?!”

 “ Can you stop yelling?”

 “ I'm not! I'm whisperin’!” Brigitte's eyes went wide and she playfully yanked at her ear as if it went deaf. Then went back to looking up trees.

 “ Loudest whisper I've ever heard.”

 “ Why did you follow me?”

 “ Why did you leave the group?” She asked in a serious tone.

 “ We are never going to find the base if we search in one group. We needed to split up!” Jerry turned to make sure he still had eyes on the robot. It was heading west. Brigitte put her hands on the trunk of a wide tree. “ What are you doing?”

 “ Trying to communicate with the rest of our team that we are over here. Something you should practice.” She grabbed her mace and slammed it against the tree trunk. All the birds sitting on the branches took off chirping and cawing into the sky. “ Almost as loud as your whisper.” She joked. Jerry turned and started to follow the robot, not wasting any time listening to her comments. “ How do you know they will understand?” He scoffed.

 “ I have faith in our team.”

 

Sure enough, the robot rolled up to the base. Two live Overwatch soldiers stood at the entrance. One of them pressed his badge to a panel that he stood next to. The large bay door to the base lifted up and the robot slip in. The soldier pressed the button again to shut it. Then he stood at attention.

 Off into the nearby tree line crouched Jerry. “ Well… look at that.” He scoffed. Brigette crouched behind him and peered over his shoulder. “ A little harder to deal with than training bots.” She said. They both were silent while they both thought of a plan of action.

 Brigitte looked behind her to see if their team had picked up on their trail. When Jerry finally spoke, it made her jump. “I can't just take em both out, I'm using real bullets.”

 “Uh yeah let's not do that. I doubt you'd be able to take out both of them befor-.” Jerry turned his head incredibly fast. “Excuse me?!” He whispered yelled again.

 I didn't mean it like that! I meant that it only takes a second to press an emergency button or call for backup.”

 “You don't think I could take em out before that?!”

 Brigitte rolled her eyes so hard her head moved with them. “ You're no Widowmaker, I assume.” Jerry clicked his tongue and turned around to watch the entrance.

 “ Let's see how you'd handle them. I _assume_ you won't be very effective with a melee weapon or very stealthy with that stupid armor.”

 Brigette's face turned red with anger. _God this guy!”_ She screamed inside herself. She stood up from her hidden position and trudged her way through the brush. Jerry grabbed her waist and tried to pull her back down but she was stronger and sturdier, especially in the armor.

 "What are you doing!? They’re going to see us!”

 “You sit back, I'll handle this.”

 “Stop!” He clung to her hip like a child having a crisis.

 "Let go!” She growled at him.

The guards heard the arguing voices and looked over to see the two recruits fighting. They locked eyes with each other and started chuckling.

 “ Alright you two,” One of them yelled out to them. “ Enough of that. Come on.” One of the soldiers started walking in their direction. “ The exam is over, you two-”

 There was a loud snap and the guard suddenly hit the ground and was out cold. The other guard stirred up to see what happened when the same thing happened to him. Brigitte and Jerry stopped their fight in confusion.

 “ What just happened?” She asked. Jerry shook his head. He had no idea either.

 The two of them slowly walked out of the brush and into the open. They cautiously walked up to the guard. Jerry bent down and moved the soldier's head side to side.

 “ What on Earth…” Started Brigitte, and then she heard feet scrape across gravel.

 “ Hey!” She shouted. She lifted her mace up to defend herself from whatever was around them.

 “ Relax, Brigitte! Haha! It's me!” Just then, Felix's body revealed itself starting from the head and worked its way down. “Ta da!”

 Brigitte was at a loss for words and Jerry slowly stood up with his jaw hanging low. Lily also revealed herself by coming out of the treeline. She gathered with the rest of the group looking pretty annoyed.

 “Are we just going to stand out here for the rest of the test, or are we going to find that secret device?” Lily bent down and snatched the gate key from the downed officer and made her way to the door.

 “ Whoa hold up! What just happened? What did y’all do?” Jerry asked Felix. Felix smiled proudly. He was finally excited to show off his skills.

 “ I just let them get their rest. They both looked tired.” He laughed. Brigitte walked to the now opened entrance with her arm around Felix's shoulders giving him a proud hug. “ That was incredible! Your chips worked perfectly!” She exclaimed. “ And you were invisible!? When were you going to tell us about that!?” Jerry followed quietly behind. He put this rifle behind him and switched to his side arm.

 “It was an idea I've been working on forever! It uses similar technology to my chips. I wanted it to be a surprise for the test!”

 Lily was waiting at the door ready to infiltrate. “Hey hurry up! We need to get the device and leave.” The rest finally made it to the entrance. Brigitte took a step forward. The whole base was quiet. She wondered if it was part of the test or if it was because it wasn't a real base. She turned to her teammates. “ I can take lead. In case of any security.” She activated her shield as she said this. Lily nodded in agreement. “ Sounds good. Of course just working together and not taking off without telling us always sounds good.” Brigitte locked eyes with Jerry who seemed to immediately redirect his stare to his gun cartridge to count his unused bullets.

 “ Yeah sorry about that.” Was all Brigitte said.

 “Hey! Let me go ahead and see if I can find the device quicker. I can also let you know what kind of security we'll be facing! They'll never see me!” Felix hopped on his feet like her was getting ready to go on a jog.

 “ That's actually a great idea.” Agreed Brigitte. “ Go for it, and if you run into trouble we'll be close behind.”

 Felix laughed. “ Now you see me, now you don't.” And with that he disappeared. “ Go get em, Magician.” Lily said with an actual playful tone.

 

The team slowly made their way through the fasle base. Felix had come by to tell them of two training bots armed with  stun bullets and a few rooms in the corridor that he could not get into. Then took off again to search further.

 Brigitte peered around a corner and saw the two bots Felix had warned them about. She leaned back to discuss a plan of action. “ Okay, just two of them. Easy to take out. I'll provide cover. You each take one.” Lily nodded and Jerry didn't do much of anything to let her know he understood but at this point she could care less if he heard her or if he is just being an asshole. _He better not get anyone hurt._ That was all she cared about.

 “... Go!” Brigitte lifted her shield and stepped out. The bots turned and immediately started firing their electric bullets. Brigitte's shield held up perfectly. The bullets would hit her shield and immediately lose their charge and hit the ground. Lily and Jerry each went after their own bot. Jerry shot only one bullet and it hit perfectly. The bot's head shattered.

 Lily hit her mark too but the knife she used didn't do much to a metal target. She was about to toss out a few more when Jerry used another bullet to shatter the bot’s head. “ You're welcome.” He tossed out.

 “Fuck you. I had it handled.” Jerry kicked open one of the doors in the corridor and fired two more shots into the room. Lily walked up to Brigitte who was further down the hall, making her way to the other door. “ God, what did you do to him?”

 Brigitte turned the knob on the door and opened it with ease. She laughed. “ He didn't need to kick the door open...” She said to Lily, who also laughed. “ ...THEY'RE UNLOCKED!” She said a little louder to make sure Jerry could hear her from inside the other room. She turned back to Lily. “ I wrecked his hovercar first day here. But I'm sure he had an attitude before that.” The two women walked into the room. It was large. It looked like a research laboratory. _A laboratory with fake computers._ Brigitte thought as she touched one of them. She also noted that the room didn't have any security inside. Unlike the room Jerry was in apparently. Speaking of which, a few more shots rang down the hall.

 “ You think he needs back up?” Lily asked.

 Brigitte shook her head. “ I'm sure he'll be fine. Plus he needs to get used to asking for help if he wants it.” Lily started scoping the lab out. Brigitte looked around the large area. She saw that they came from a side door. She walked to the large double doors and pressed the open button. The doors slid apart and revealed another corridor. A couple of training bots turned around and aimed their guns at her.

 “ Oh!” She pulled up her shield and covered herself and not a minute too soon. The bullets smacked into her shield. They all bounced off with ease. Once the bots stopping firing to reload, Brigitte swung her mace and took out two of them. She then shield bashed a bot on her left and smacked the last one over the head with her mace. She looked around at the mess of metal and scrap and laughed. “ Oh I love this thing!” She said to her mace as she held it up to look at it. That's when she eyeballed two circles on the ceiling that opened up to reveal two dark holes.

 “...oh?” Two turrets popped out and lined two red dots on her body. “OH!” She lifted her shield over her head. The turrets pummeled her with an unending round of electric bullets.

 Lily heard Brigitte yell and stopped what she was doing and ran over.

 In the meantime, Brigitte tried to angle herself to try to hit the turret with her mace. She swung at it but the ceiling was just high enough for it to be out of reach. Out of ideas she tossed her mace up at one of the turrets. It smacked the ceiling next to it. “Crap.” One of the bullets managed to hit her inner arm that was exposed. The shock was quick but painful.

 “Fan!” She seethed and pulled her arm inward.

 “ I got it!” Lily slid to the opening of the door and threw two of her throwing blades at the turrets hat hit them both at the same time. The turrets fell and shattered on the ground. Brigitte disabled her shield and walked over to get her mace.

 “ You okay?”

“ Yeah, I'm good. Thanks.”

 Jerry walked up behind them. “ You guys find anything useful?”

 “Besides knowing this place has turrets, I don't think so.” Brigitte looked over at Lily. “ Did you?” She shook her head.  “ I wonder if-” Brigitte started but was interrupted by Felix yelling for help. The group all looked at each other then took off in the direction of Felix's yell.

 Brigitte took lead with mace and shield at the ready. They would need it too. As the group rounded the corner, they saw the hallway filled with over a dozen training robots. They were all crowding into a room where a terrified Felix tried to keep them out by pressing a large overturned desk into the doorway.

 “ There you guys are!” He shouted over the guns. “I think I found the device!”

 “ No kidding.” Lily scoffed. She took out two of her longest blades in preparation of an upclose battle. Jerry holstered his side arm and slid his rifle to his front. Brigitte smiled at the perfect opportunity to test out her armor.

 “ You two, cover me and when I make a clearing we all push through. Understood?” She asked without expecting any discussion.

 “ What do you mean? What are you-” Jerry was cut off mid-sentence by the loud jet on her back that roared to life. With her shield in front of her, Brigitte plowed through the center of the hall and took out 4 training bots that just shattered under the force of her attack. Once her push finished, she swung her mace, clearing even more space around her to make another attempt to push. Almost immediately Lily sprang into action clearing the rest of the bots in the hall. It took Jerry a second to process what just happened but he soon laid fire and helped clear out the hall.

 Brigitte knew her armor was ready to go again. “ Felix!” She shouted over the noise of the fight.

 “Yeah?” His soft voice returned.

 “ I’m going to need you to move away from the door, okay?” There was a short pause, but once he responded, she shield bashed her way through the barricade. A quick sweep of her mace and the room, that was smaller than the lab but filled with what looked like actual computers, was clear of any hostiles. Felix walked up from where he was hiding to get a look at her armor.

 “ What is that!? When do you...? How did you...?” He gawked.

 The commotion outside tapered off with the last of the bots destroyed. Lily ran inside and nearly hopped on top of Brigitte with an almost out of character excitement.

 “ That was amazing! A jet strapped to your back!? Where do you come up with this stuff!?”

 Brigitte rolled her neck in false stretching to try to hide her blushing. “ It's something I've been working on since fighting alongside Reinhardt. Similar to the crusaders, but much easier to control.”  

 “ How long is the cool down for something like this?”

 Jerry walked past his team to get a look at the device while they chit chatted. He didn't want to waste anymore time on this test. They never mentioned a time limit but that didn't mean they could be here all night.

 The device looked like a movie prop bomb. It had all kinds of glowing and flashing light.  Cords of all colors and sizes were coming in and out of it. These were connected to probably the only real working computer in the false base. Jerry picked it up and could feel how heavy it was. He moved it gently in his hands.

 “ That has to be the device.” Brigitte said over Jerry's shoulder.

 “ Yeah, and it's heavy. Reckon they put a lot of time making this thing look legit.”

 Brigitte softly chuckled. “ ‘reckon’,” She mocked. “ Are you a cowboy all of a sudden?” Jerry was just about to yank it out of the computer when Felix interrupted.

 “ Wait!” Everyone looked at the magician. “ Don't you think there is a reason Overwatch put so much detail into this device?”

 “ Like, what are you suggesting? Overwatch made a real bomb or something?” Lily said this like it was a stupid thought, but once the words were out in the air it was on everybody's mind. There was a long silence as everyone thought of the possibility.

 Jerry slapped the device on Brigitte's chest plate. “ WHOA! What are you doing!? Be careful!” She grabbed ahold of it lightly with her finger tips.

 “ You're the amazing engineer. Check it out. Make sure it's safe.” He took a step back as he said this.

 Brigitte set the device back down. She reached into one of her pockets under her armor and pulled out her lazer multi-tool. She turned the device around and set it on its side. She used a small screwdriver to open the back of the device. Jerry crept closer to see what she doing.

 “ I would stand back.” She said. “ If this is a bomb… well…” She looked up at her team with a sideways smirk. “... I’m no bomb squad.” The whole team took a large step back. “ But I'll try my best.” She said as she went to work on the mystery device.

 She could recognize the function of some components but she had no idea where to even begin to disconnect what she could see as the actual bomb in the device. Her eyes focused on everything, trying to find her first move. She followed the connection to every wire, looked at every piece of motherboard and socket. She could see this device would do something when triggered. _But what?_ Her team watched her at a distance. No one dared to make a sound. Lily was the first one to move and all she did was move to the entrance to make sure they were alone. She couldn’t think of anything else she could do.

 Brigitte slowly used her finger to softly follow a wire she had been looking at the longest. It looked like the wire she needed to cut to remove the device from the computer without the computer activating anything or causing the device to blow or whatever would happen . So she made her first cut. She held her breath the whole time during and a little longer after the cut was made. The computer made no noise. She moved her hand to the thick computer cord and pulled it out of the device gently. Felix gasped loudly and made the rest of his team jump and glare at him.

 “ Sorry.” He whispered.

 “No that’s fine… I think we are going to be okay.” Brigitte turned and smiled. Just then, the lights suddenly shut off in the entire base.

 Jerry’s blasé voice cut through the dark. “ Spoke too soon.” A dark red light slowly flashed on and off, providing only the smallest visibility. Brigitte immediately looked back at the device to make sure it was only the computer systems that were affected. She had to lean in close to see the inside of the device. The lights on the thing were still on so that told her the device was still activated.

 Now it was even harder to see what wire was what. She cursed at herself. Jerry ran up to her and aimed his side arm at the device.

 “Hey! What are you doing!?” But before she could do anything to stop him, Jerry clicked the flashlight on his gun on. It was tiny, but it was better than nothing. “...Thank you.” She said quietly and continued to try to finish disabling the mysterious device.

 Lily couldn’t see down the hall very well so she turned around to face her team. “Should we worry about this?!” She shouted across the room. Felix moved to stand next to her. “ I think they are handling the situation. We can keep an eye out for any bots. We’ll take out those little guys, no problem.” He said with such confidence. As if the universe had a sense of humor, the sound of metal scraping and clicking into place came from above them. Lily grabbed Felix and moved them away from the door. The source of the noise fell and landed on the ground sounding like a bunch of pots and pans hitting the ground.

 This caused everyone to stop and stare. The metal parts slowly pulled itself together and stood up. It was hard to see with only the red pulsing light giving the group a few seconds of visibility, but the machine looked like a Bastion unit only thinner. This bastion unit had no gatling gun, but two machine guns locked and ready to fire.

 “Move!” Yelled Lily. The machine fired directly on her and Felix. Lily was able to roll out of the way and Felix managed to disappear before the Machine could lock on. So the machine set its sights on Lily. Brigitte was about to run over to provide cover but Jerry put his hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

 “ Finish.” He pulled his flashlight off his gun and gave it to her. “I’ll help out.” Brigitte nodded and put the flashlight in her mouth. “ Ew!” Jerry spent an extra second at his team’s expense to react.

 “ Go helf tem!” She muffled out. She shook her head in disbelief and got to work carefully snipping a couple of wires she was almost positive were okay to cut.

 Jerry switched to his rifle and fired in short bursts at the thin Bastion. Lily could feel the sparks from the bullets hitting the metal. “ Easy!” She shouted and dodged the sweep of bullets from the thin Bastion. “ I see ya.” Jerry responded and continued to fire. Finally the thin Bastion changed targets and fired at Jerry. He quickly dodge rolled behind one of the large computer units. He peered over the top and could only see where the shots were coming from and the occasional outline of the Bastion when the light would flash. He fired a few more rounds then ducked down to reload. “ This is a goddamn mess.”

 

Lily's made it through the door and into the hall. She leaned her back on the wall to catch her breath. She look into the room and durning the next glow of light she observed Brigitte still hunched over the device and the Bastion firing at Jerry.

 “Pssst!”

 “AH!” Lily slashed wildly in the direction of the noise in panic.

 “Lily! Ouch! It's me!” Lily stopped and tried to see in the dark.

 “Felix?” She reached out with her hand this time and felt the invisible man’s weird jumpsuit.

 “ Yes! And I have a plan! May I see your long blade?” Lily flipped her blade over in her hand to point with the hilt instead of the blade. She kept moving it side to side, trying to find him.

 “ Okay hold on, stop swaying. Just keep your hand still.”

 

Back inside with the Bastion type robot, Jerry was hitting it, but because the robot’s parts we thinner and had more gaps between pieces, most of his bullets were flying through it. Ever so often the robot would change targets to Brigitte but Jerry would see this and pop out of his hiding spot. “ Have you done it yet!?” He shouted.

 Brigitte had cut a few more wires and pulled out a socket, but the device was still on and now the lights were blinking. She set her multi-tool down and took the flashlight out of her mouth. “ No! Nothing I’m doing is working!” The robot turned and fired at Brigitte. She instinctively activated her shield.

“Oh no you don’t!” Jerry ran out from behind the computers and fired his rifle until it clicked with no ammo. He dropped it and let it hang off his strap. He pulled out his side arm but when he aimed his sights, he saw bright orange sparks coming out of the robots joints. They watched as the sparks started flying out of other parts of the robot leading up to its head. The robot started spinning and shooting wildly around the room.

 Jerry put down his gun. “What on Earth?”

 “Its Felix! Don’t shoot!” Lily yelled as she entered back into the room.

 Felix was holding onto the Bastion’s head and dove Lily’s knife into it. He aimed for the screen face. As soon as he hit it, the Bastion lost control of its movements and fired its guns at it’s own head. It fired a few rounds hitting both Felix and itself. The stun bullets caused whatever was making him invisible to short circuit and finally, through the darkness,was light. Felix’s whole body shined bright with electricity. The robot collapsed and Felix hit the ground. The room went back to being dark.

 Everyone gathered around the mess. Brigitte knelt down and set the device on the ground. She used the flashlight to get a good look at Felix while Lily checked his pulse. Brigitte looked to Lily.

 “ Anything?”

 Lily nodded. “Yeah it's still strong. Old man is just taking a nap.” They chuckled.

 “ Come on let's get him outside. We can worry about the device after.” Brigitte lifted Felix up bridal style.

 Jerry looked over the Bastion unit. “ The other tests better be just as hard as this one. Geez.” Something hard and small fell from the ceiling and hit his shoulder. He looked up and could see something but not through this darkness. “ Can I see the flashlight?” Brigitte handed it to him on her way out. He pointed it up and saw a few other thin Bastions hanging from the rafters. “ Holy shit.” Brigitte turned slightly to address him.

 “ What's wrong?”

 “Forget coming back after! We need to go now!” He shouted. Brigitte and Lily both saw what he was talking about, the group of awaking Bastion units. Jerry dashed for the device on the ground and snatched it up with incredible speed.

 “ Wait! Jerry! I haven't deactivated it yet!” Brigitte made to stop him, but with her arms preoccupied with Felix, he easily slipped by her.

 “ I'll take care of it! Just get out! Unless you want to deal with those guys.” The Bastion units dropped from the ceiling and were already on their way to put themselves together.

 Lily pulled on Brigitte's arm, who was actually going to put Felix down to fight. “ He's right. One was hard enough with us three. Let's get out and lock them in.”

 Brigitte nodded. “ Go after him. Even though it's a test. Something might still happen when he takes that thing out of here.” Lily took off immediately to catch up with him. Brigitte adjusted Felix and ran heavy footed down the metal corridors. The Bastions shot after her.

 She knew exactly who had made these terrifying Bastion wannabes. Her father. That was one of his ‘biggest sins’, as he would call it. He had helped make the original Bastion model before the crisis. What was strange now was that Brigitte would never of guessed he would ever go back to working on new and, judging by how fast and how good their aim was, improved models.

 She was just about to turn a corner when she finally got pelted by a few rounds. The shock floored her to her knees but she held onto Felix tight. She grinded her teeth till the electric charge left her body. Now she could finally relax her muscles. Lily had ran back to give her a hand in standing up.

 “ Come on big girl. You're almost there.” She was right. The entrance was right ahead. They both ran to the exit right as the skinny Bastions turned the corner.

 Brigitte stumbled out and dropped Felix on the ground while Lily slammed her palm on the control panel. The metal door slid down and the bullets from the Bastions could be heard ricocheting off.

 “There! See. Much easier than sticking around.” Both women looked over at Jerry as he strolled back over tossing the device up in the air and catching it with ease. “ Plus, we passed the test. Congratula-” Brigitte shield bashed Jerry down onto the ground. The device fell not far from them at all. Jerry lifted his torso up and tried to yell at Brigitte but the wind was knocked out of him.

 Expecting her to want to continue fighting, he tried to stand up. When she stomped over he was ready. He stopped her by pressing on her shoulders. “Jerry! Let go now!” She yelled and ripped his arms off of her. But he only put them back to stop her.

 “ What…” He took a deep breath. “... the hell is your problem!?”

 She raised her mace.“ No Jerry, I need you to-”

 He hit her right in the jaw. Her mace left her hand in mid toss but it never made it to its intended target, the device.

 Brigitte saw black spots all over her vision from the hit. She knew her mace didn't hit the device away. She only wish she could try again but she only had the one mace and thanks to that asshat, they failed the test for sure. She hit the ground.

 Jerry spat on the ground. He could of sworn he tasted blood. Then he heard a soft beeping.

 “Look out!” Lily pointed behind Jerry. He turned around and saw that the device had started smoking and that the beeping was coming from it. “ Son of a-” Jerry was pulled to the ground by the back of his belt. Brigitte covered his body with hers and held her shield in the direction of the device.

 The beeping got higher in pitch and then stopped. Lily covered Felix's body in case any shrapnel from the blast would reach them. But after the world's longest minute. Nothing happened. Jerry unclenched his eyes and looked up at Brigitte. His hit had made her bite her tongue and blood was pooling at the edge of her mouth. They locked eyes for another long minute. He couldn't tell what kind of look she was giving him. But it was intense. Was it hatred? Was it gloating? A non verbal told you so?  A loud buzzer rang through the training grounds.

 Brigitte pushed herself up and walked over to Lily and Felix without say a word or sparing a second glance at the man. Jerry stayed on the ground a little bit longer while he processed what happened and how stupid he was.

 “ Excellent work team. Go ahead and get cleaned up.” The same officer from earlier walked up to them. “ And don't worry about the exterminator here.” He nodded to Felix. “ I'll get him to the infirmary. You should head down there as well.” He said to Brigitte. She just shook her hand in a polite dismissal.

 Lily let go of Felix finally. “ What do we do now? Where do we go from here?” A gurney floated by and an omnic and a overwatch nurse came rushing through to fetch Felix.

 “ Well, you guys can relax, y'all done with the hard part. The board will be looking over the recordings and discuss everyone's results. They'll call y'all in for a one on one sometime tomorrow.”

 Lily scoffed and nudged Brigitte. “ THIS was the hard part, he says.” Brigitte would of laughed had her jaw not feel like it was locked shut.

 


	7. Now We're Even

* * *

Brigitte ended up having to stop by the infirmary anyway. It wasn't until the next morning when she went to brush her teeth did she notice her jaw was off center.

 “ Now just lay back and relax and try not to think about what happens next.” Brigitte leaned back on the padded examination table and closed her eyes. The doctor gently placed her hands under her jaw. The doctor's finger glossed over the large and ugly bruise on the bottom left side of her cheek. “ Does that hurt?” Brigitte gave her a nervous 'mhm’. She has never liked going to the doctor's. Ever since she could remember she always tried to hide her ailments. Her family loved to poke fun at her expense whenever they finally got her to go. She was an adult now. So she convinced herself to get down here. There was a moment where she considered keeping her off center jaw. _Maybe it'll add character._ She thought. But she knew it was just her nerves talking.

 “ Other than a few unconscious folks and a handful of broken bones. Everyone seemed to do well on these tests.” The doctor pressed a little on her back jaw to find the right place to move. Brigitte sank her nails into the soft padding and let out a deep long breath.“ A lot of people made it this year. I'm sure you made it in. Right?”

 “ Oh, I don't know yet.” She responded tensely and through her teeth.

 “ Oh?” The doctor paused her actions to think something over much to the dismay of Brigitte, who was bracing herself for the pain.“ I thought they finished the reviews?” The doctor said louder to her assistant. “They did, or they are just about finished.” He responded.

 “Wait what!?” Brigitte stirred but was interrupted by the doctor setting her jaw right. Brigitte's yell could be heard all the way to the air strip.

 

Brigitte ran right out of the infirmary and did not stop until  she made it to the light blue building. She flung the front door open and ran up three flights of stairs to the review board room. She opened the double doors and saw Jerry and Lily sitting on some plastic chairs in the hall outside the meeting room.

 “ There you are!” Lily stood to greet her. Brigitte relaxed a little and walked up to them. “ Where have you been?”

 “ I went to the infirmary. I didn't think I'd be in there for so long.”

 “They called us up here like thirty minutes ago. I think they went in order by who finished first to last.” Jerry added.

 “They haven't seen you guys yet?” Brigitte said as she sat down.

 Lily sat back down. “ They've only seen me. Felix is in there right now.”

 Brigitte rubbed her chin gently. “ I hope they don't focus on his injury. He really helped us back there.” She turned to Lily. “ So!” She slapped her hands on her knees. “ I'm positive you made it into Overwatch. Right?”

 Lily leaned back in her chair with an air of confidence. “ Of course. Overwatch recognizes talent.” She smiled. “ They want me to train with Genji's troop.”

 “ Seriously!?”

 Lily couldn't help but smile ear to ear. “ Ooooh yeahhhh. Gonna train with the ninjas. ”

 “ That amazing! I’m really happy for you, Lily.  You've trained a long time for this.” Lily nodded her head softly. Almost like hearing someone say it aloud made it all sink in. Lily rubbed her scarred knuckles. “ I did.”

 “When will you be shipped out?”

 “ Not for a couple more weeks. They gotta prep me before I go.  Gotta get me up to speed for Genji and his team.”

 Just then the door knob for the meeting room started to giggle and turn. Felix opened the door and thanked the members inside before shutting the door. He stood there with his back to his friends. They all waited in silence. Even Jerry leaned forward in attention to see if he could read any sign of what happened in there by just Felix's body. Felix finally turned around.

 He looked everyone in the eyes. Brigitte finally cracked under the silent pressure.

 “ How'd it go in there, Felix? Are you okay?”

 Felix looked down and refused to meet anyone's stare. Brigitte knew it couldn't of gone well if he was in this shape. “ Oh Felix…” She walked up to him and pulled him onto a hug.

 Lily and Jerry looked at each other in a shared disappointment. Felix pulled away and blew his nose in a red cloth. “ Wait a minute!” Brigitte called out while patting her back pockets. “ That's my bandana!” She went to grab it and Felix was able to pull back away just out of reach. “ You make it so easy to nab ya, Brigitte!” He laughed and hid her bandana behind his back. She grabbed his arms but when she pulled them forward his hands were empty. “ Hahahaha!”

 “ Oh my God!” She reached back into her back pocket and found her bandana back in its place. She rolled her eyes and turned around. “ Did you guys see him put it back?” Lily and Jerry shook their heads no. Brigitte went and grabbed Felix in a playful headlock.

 “ So everything went well then?” Lily asked becoming concerned again. Brigitte let Felix slip out and he wiped his single tear of joy away.

 “ Well, more or less. I made it into Overwatch, but they want me on their development team instead of the agents.” He shrugged. “ I can't complain. I think I'll do better there. I'll be more helpful.”

 “ I can see the invisibility being extremely helpful.” Jerry said, almost to himself.

 Felix clapped his hands together. “ Right! Now to go call my wife and give her the good news!” Felix put his hand on Brigitte's arm. “ Don't be nervous, you did an amazing job out there. And the council are all pretty nice.”

 “ Thanks, Felix.”

 With that, Felix walked down the hall with a jump in his step.

 “ Tell Ollie I said hi!” Lily shouted out to him.

 “ You know his wife?” Brigitte asked.

 “ Not personally. You'd know us a little bit more if you actually came back into the room at a normal time.” She joked.

 The door opened suddenly and Captain Fareeha stood in the door frame. She nodded her head to acknowledge the recruits. Her eyes widened when she saw Brigitte. “ Oh, perfect. Are you ready Brigitte?”

 Brigitte's heart was pounding she was so nervous. “ Been ready, Captain.” Fareeha smiled quickly, then opened the door wider to let her in.

 

As soon as Fareeha closed the door, Brigitte watched her make her way around a set up of tables where four other Overwatch officials sat and flipped through papers. She thought to herself. _I don't recognize anyone. Guess_ _they have enough people that Morrison and the rest don't need to do this._ They chatted softly to one another. Probably about Felix or maybe her. She couldn’t hear too well. The room looked just like the rest of the building. The same light blue color and scuffed laminate flooring. As for the lighting, they had all the windows opened and we're using natural light so it wasn't too dark but it wasn't obnoxiously bright either. It was a peaceful setting.

 Fareeha sat down and grabbed her clip board that held her notes and a small screen where the review board could play back any footage.

 “ Hello Miss Lindholm. Please have a seat.” A woman, who Brigitte suddenly recognized as the old woman she talked to when she first arrived in this building, gestured to an open chair. “ Thank you.” She managed to say without a lame crack in her voice. She sat down, feeling pretty awkward due to the size of the chair. It was a standard size chair but it felt as if she was suddenly an ox sitting there in front of all these people. She was also hyper aware of what she was wearing. The same clothes she woke up in. Just a old shirt turned tank top and her work jeans. _That have holes in them… nice._

 “ Excellent work in the training grounds, I think we can all agree.” One of the members said with the others nodding and humming in agreement. “ We could clearly see you giving orders and led the team through most of the course.”

 Fareeha pressed a few buttons and a muted clip of the test started to play on their clipboards. It showed Brigitte pointing and talking to her team when they were in the hallway of the base.

 A bald man sitting at the other end of the table leaned forward and folded his hands together. “ This exact test was given to two other teams yesterday. Almost all of them were handled similarly…” The mood around the room seemed to change. Brigitte caught  Fareeha's unreadable stare. This did not help her nerves. She began picking at the worn holes in her jeans.

 “... All failed the test.” He finally added dramatically.   _Oh God, are they going to blame me? The team? They accepted Felix._ She quickly tried to reason within herself. _But on their development team. They liked his gadgets. Not necessarily his fighting skills._ The man continued. “ All but your team.”

 “Wait, what?” She said aloud. Completely caught off guard. “ I don't understand. I didn't disarm the bomb. It went off.”

 “ The bomb was impossible to disarm.” Fareeha spoke. “ Your father and Winston designed it that way.”

 “ Oh...err…”

 “ What your team succeeded in was keeping each other safe.” The man spoke again. “You noticed the bomb change and tried to get rid of it.”

 “ You put Mr. Johnson's life before your own by putting yourself and your shield over him ” The old woman added. Brigitte took a moment to try to figure out who she was talking about when all of a sudden it dawned on her she was talking about Jerry. _Jerry Johnson? That sounds like a fake name or the name of a race car driver._ She thought to herself.

 “Speaking of!” The fifth member said excitedly, with a German accent. “ Let's take a look at that armor!” Fareeha brought up another clip of Brigitte, this time using her shield bashed. “ Amazing! Your time with Mr. Windhelm as really been an influence in your work, I see!” She said.

 Brigitte started to feel hot with embarrassment. “ Yes, he taught me how to fight and the ways of the Crusaders.”

 Fareeha spoke up. “ Reinhardt has always fought for Overwatch and held onto the true values of our cause. Even when the world refused us. You were very lucky to be his apprentice.” Brigitte nodded in solidarity with the captain.

 “ And we are lucky to have another Lindholm with us.” The bald man added. Brigitte leaned forward.

 “ Oh? Does that mean what I think it means?” She asked aloud but she looked at Fareeha with an incoming smile spreading across her face. Fareeha in turn nodded her head once sternly and lacking Brigitte's enthusiasm. As for the rest of the members, they all stood up with a smile.

 “ I think it's a no brainer. We are all impressed with your display of heroism and ingenuity.” The bald man spoke again. “ Welcome to Overwatch.”

 Brigitte shot up from her chair and punched the air. “Yes!” The chair knocked back and she quickly set it up right and apologised and then ran a hand through her hair. “ Oh I feel so much better now.” The members were very amused and let the new hero celebrate. “ Oh all the stress just left my body.” She chuckled with exhaustion behind it. “ Finally.” She had trained and worked for months straight. She finally did it. She could now start helping and join Reinhardt's side like they had promised.

 “ Oh I bet.” The bald man said. He clasped his hands together and walked around the table to shake the hand of Overwatch's newest member. “ I know this organization is just as relieved to have another Lindholm to it's engineering department.” All of Brigitte's excitement drained out of her. She took her hand back from the man. “Engineering department?”

 Fareeha stepped over knowing that she was going to be upset by this. The bald man noticed her attitude change but did not know the cause exactly. “ Yes Miss Lindholm… That's what-” Brigitte interrupted him. “ That's not what I trained for.” The man seemed even more confused. “ What do you mean?” Brigitte couldn't tell if he was genuinely confused or playing dumb and this upset her more. “ I came here to fight, to make a difference out in the field.” The man put his hands on his hips to hear the young woman out. Almost like a manager waiting for a bitching customer to finish their rant. “I've been on the sidelines sir, for years doing what I could! I have more to offer than my mechanical skills. I want to contribute the skills I've learned and trai-”

 “ We have fighters, tons of them!” He finally shot back. “Everyone that comes through these doors comes here wanting to fight and become a 'hero’.” The Bald man spat with air quotations. Brigitte shook her head in disbelief. She closed her eyes angled her head down to hide any possible tears that could flow. Lucky for her none made it out. At least for now. The rage building inside her was to thank for that. The man continued, softer this time.  “ It's your mechanical skills and legacy that we need in New Overwatch. You want to help? Help us there. We really need it. Your father could use another hand.” This time Fareeha stepped in and put a hand on the man's shoulder. All she had to do was give him a look and he stood down. Brigitte stood there a moment longer. She had more to say, boy did she, but nothing came out. Nothing could come out. What was she to do? Argue and get kicked out. She was probably already on thin ice.

 She finally looked up at the council. “ If that is all, then I will take my leave.” Fareeha nodded in response. “ We will contact you with more information about what happens next.”

 “ Thank you.” She turned and walked to the door, not waiting for an escort.

 The German woman spoke from behind the table. “ We will look forward to working with you and having some of those shields and armor in our arsenal, Mrs. Lindholm!”

 Brigitte stopped just short of the door. The woman probably meant that to be encouraging but it left a bad taste for Brigitte. Instead of turning around to face them she just spoke loud enough for them to hear. “ I won't be making any weapons. If you know anything about 'my legacy’...” She turned the door knob then turned to look at the bald man in the eyes. “...then you know we don't make weapons anymore.” The man seemed to dismiss this whole thing and turned his back to walk back to the table.

 “ Besides,” She now spoke to the German woman. “The armor is mine to wear.” She opened the door and left the room.

 

As soon as the door shut behind her, Brigitte finally let herself breathe. It came out more like a shudder. She knew she wanted to cry but once again she held it in. Lily and Jerry were still waiting for her after all. Lily stood up to go to her but Brigitte put her hand up.

 “ I got in.” She could see Lily’s concern. “I'll see you in the room later, alright.” She left the hall quickly and pushed through the doors to the stairwell. The doors slammed behind her. Lily wanted to head out but decided to wait to give Brigitte some time to make it out of the building. Jerry stood up from his seat.

 “ What do you think happened?” He asked. Lily shook her head. “ I don't know. I've never seen her like that.” Lily looked at Jerry with genuine worry. All he could do is shrug. The door opened again and he knew it was his turn.

 

Once Brigitte made it outside, her heart was pounding. Her heart sank low in her chest, she felt so hopeless. She had no idea what to do. She knew she was close to falling to pieces. She ran. She ran as fast as she could to the main workshop.

 The workshop always had people in there but due to most people either celebrating or packing their things to go back home or wherever, it was mostly empty. Brigitte had to duck under a low hanging metal shutter door. She walked to her station where her armor and mace laid with her tears already reaching her chin. She sat on her stool and laid her head down in her arms and wept.

 She was so frustrated. She kept replaying the whole conversation with the bald man in her head. How he mentioned her 'legacy’. _What the fuck is that!? Yes I'm a good mechanic and engineer. That isn’t just because I'm one of my father's spawn._ She yelled inside herself. _I worked and practiced! Just like I worked and trained to be a great fighter!_ She looked at her armor with red puffy eyes. The rage inside her had reached its boiling point. _But it doesn't matter!_ She wrapped her hand around her mace. _They will only care about what my name has to offer!_ She raised her mace and slammed it down on her work table. Even with her anger she managed to avoid hitting her armor.

 She clenched her sore jaw. After the first slam of her mace, the urge to do it again was even stronger. She lifted it again and started going to town on all the metal around her. She would growl with every swing of her weapon. If there were any people inside, they soon fled giving the dangerous woman her space and ultimately to keep them safe from any flying scrap.

 She slammed her mace in someone's forgotten rusted project. She went to pull it out to swing once again but it was in the metal pretty good and so she was yanked back. She gave it a hard angry yank and it popped out. The momentum of the pull had her stumble backwards. She would of fallen on her ass but her mace got tangled in some chains that we're hanging across the aisle. She yanked at it and brought all the chains down in a loud clash. She was breathing hard. Her tears were starting up again. She couldn't have that happen. Her mace was wrapped in one of the chains but that wouldn't stop her. She swung her mace and let the chain swing like a whip. Now she had more reach for her rage filled destruction. It was actually really handy and fun. She slowly stopped swinging her mace out of anger and more out of fun.

 She held her new accidental weapon in her hands. She started thinking of ways she could incorporate this new design. She swung the chain around in a circle while she imagined her design. The chain suddenly flew off her mace. She flinched at the loud clash sound it made as it hit something. Then that something it hit started blaring an alarm. Brigitte ran over to where the alarm was coming from. The chain had hit a hover car that was parked back here. She walked over to turn the alarm off.

 “Wait a minute.” She said to herself. It was Jerry's car. Still on jacks. Untouched since the day she turned his front hover jet ports off. She opened the door and sat down in it. She pulled off a compartment under the steering column and unplugged a small box. The alarm shut off. The workshop was dead quiet. She sat inside the car for a long time. She once again though about the meeting. She knew she could help by working on bases or even rebuilding cities like in Eichenwald. _But that's not good enough!_  She suddenly stood up out of the vehicle and walked over to a tool chest. She pulled open multiple drawers and pulled out what she needed. Instead of crying again, she got to work.

 

Jerry walked past a group of new drunk Overwatch agents all having a good laugh this evening. “ Ay! Johnson! Drink with us man!"  He rolled his eyes. “ I'll be there in just a moment. I don't drink piss water.” He ducked under a metal shutter door and had to navigate over a mess of scrap metal. “ Jeez, this place is a-” He stopped in front his car. Brigitte was fast asleep in the driver's seat. The two front hover ports were clearly working as the car softly bobbed up and down. He leaned into the driver side and could see the screen had been repaired as well. He looked at the sleeping mechanic and watched her for a moment, his eyes landing on a dark and ugly bruise. He knew whatever happened in the meeting must of been rough on her.

 He leaned across her to reach the glove box. He opened it and took out an unlabeled bottle of Amber colored liquor. He shut it and pulled away. He took the keys out of the ignition and the car settled gently on the ground. Then he got out of the car. He put the bottle in his back pocket and began to pull off his hoodie. He laid it on Brigitte. “ Now we're even.”


	8. The Plan and the Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello sorry for the very long wait for an update. But finally got this done. Sadly no Brigitte in this chapter, have to get the story going and to do that I have to make everything line up. Next chapter we will see how Brigitte is handling her new training as OW prepares their new engineer. As well as what plans Sombra has with the training base. Thank you for your support.

Reinhardt pressed the button to open his bedroom door at Gibraltar. He slumped his way to his bed and plopped his large body on it. He was out of his armor. It was nicely put away in a specially made storage unit near the hangars. Reinhardt and his team had recently gotten back from a mission in Paris where they were there to make sure a peaceful omnic worker union protest stayed peaceful. It was for the most part. Having the new Overwatch around definitely kept people on their best behavior it seemed.

Reinhardt was much too big for the standard beds here at base so he managed to get a second mattress and push them together. He had no bed frame. He learned long ago how useless it was. There he laid for at least ten minutes before stirring up. He reached over to his bedside table for a pair of tiny reading glasses. Once he found them, he put them on and grabbed a stack of mail on his table. He quickly flipped through to find a specific letter that he knew had to be in the pile. “AH! Here we are!” Every few weeks or so, Brigitte would send him an update letter. Which in turn, he would do the same. That way, he would know how she was doing and she would know how her father and he was.

His eyes moved across the letter, back and forth. Then he sat up straighter and brought the letter closer as if he had to re read something he didn't understand. “ Oh no.” He set the letter down. “ My poor girl.” He removed his glasses and folded the letter. He got up off his bed. It took him a few lunges but he got it and headed out to find his friend Torbjörn.

Gibraltar was unusually quiet. Most of the time it seemed busy with agents waiting for deployment and with nothing much to do. With New Overwatch spreading further across the globe, it meant Overwatch had its hands in more projects and missions.

Reinhardt slowly made his way towards Torbjörn's workshop, taking extra care not to bump into people as he walked down the hall. He turned a corner and saw Torbjörn leaving his workshop with blueprints under each arm. “ My friend!” He shouted. Torbjörn didn't even need to search for who called his name. There was only one person with such a powerful voice. He turned and faced the large man.

“ Yes! You don't have to shout!”

“ Ah, I am truly sorry.” He said in an almost normal volume. “ I did not want you to take off so suddenly like you do.” Torbjörn shrugged. “ That is a good point. I have been pulled here and there lately.” He readjusted the rolled up blueprints for what he assumed would end up a lengthy discussion. “So, back from Paris are you? How did everything go?”

Reinhardt put his hands on his hips heroically. “ Perfectly! No one dared cause trouble with my team around!” He laughed.

Torbjörn nodded. “ Things have been unstable there but it sounds like it's getting better.” He looked up at his friend. He could see in his features that there was something on his mind. Torbjörn and Reinhardt had been friends for years. He was the god father of his children after all. He wouldn't of even been alive to see Brigitte's birth had it not been for this selfless hero.

“ What's on your mind? Something is troubling you.” Reinhardt smiled with a sigh. “ Aye. It's Brigitte.” This alarmed the smaller man immediately. The rolled up plans under his arms fell to the floor. “ What about Brigitte!? Is she hurt!? What did she say!?” Reinhardt put his hands on Torbjörn's shoulders to reassure him. “She isn't hurt. Not physically at least.”

Torbjörn relaxed a little. “Not physically? ...Emotionally?” He added after a pause. Reinhardt nodded. Torbjörn turned red. “Well! Who ever hurt my baby is going to feel a lot worse. Let me tell you!” Torbjörn pushed up his sleeve with his one hand. He was about to walk right back into his workshop to do who knows what when Reinhardt stopped him one again.

“ Hold on there my uppitty friend!” He took out Brigitte's letter. “ Have a quick read before you wage war.” Torbjörn snatched the letter and held it close to his face to read.

“ Just the two I'm looking for!” Someone shouted down the hall. Reinhardt looked up and saw commander Morrison walking up to them. “Ah! Commander!” Reinhardt cheered, happy to see their old commander. “Please, just Morrison. I am no longer the sole Commander of Overwatch.” Torbjörn turned 180 degrees to face Morrison. “What is the meaning of this!?” He said flapping the letter in Morrison's face.

“What are you talking about?” He tried to grab the letter but Torbjörn took it back.

“ Brigitte has been assigned to the Overwatch Engineering Branch?!” Morrison rubbed his scruffy chin in confusion. “ Uh, yeah I think so. Isn't that good?”

Reinhardt spoke up next. “ She had been training as an agent for years, Comman- I mean Jack. She was even before I started training her . This was a huge shock for her. And for me! She is more than qualified.”

Jack understood why they were all upset. But he was pressed for time and was not really expecting being yelled at. “ I'm sorry she's upset, Torbjörn. But I'm not in charge of assignments. But I need you two-”

“ Don't wash your hands of this!” Torbjörn interrupted. “ You call those bastard board members and tell them they've made a mistake!” Jack signed. “ I'll call the base and see what I can do, but those guys know where people need to go to most benefit this organization. Overwatch is a lot bigger these days and we have more important problems on our hands.”

“ What kind of problems?” Reinhardt asked.

“ Come with me for an emergency meeting.” Jack turned and started walking down the hallway. Torbjörn marched down after him. “ You better handle this or I'll march there myself and deal with this!” Jack sighed.

Reinhardt had expected this reaction from Torbörn. He felt the same way, but he also just realized he knew Brigitte just as well and she would be furious to learn that her father got Overwatch to switch her position. Reinhardt knew she wanted to make her own here. After realizing that Torbörn more than meant it when he said he would not drop this matter, Reinhardt began to panic.

The three of them walked into the main command center at Gibraltar. This large center was always busy and loud. Mission leaders oversaw their agents here and dispatchers were constantly shouting into these unreliable radios. This place had come a long way than what it was a few years ago.

Jack walked to one of the dark blue doors off to the side of the main computer area and swiped a key card. Reinhardt tapped Torbörn's shoulder gently. “What is it?” Reinhardt leaned down to whisper into his ear. “ I just had a thought about the whole thing with Brigitte.”

“Oh?” He huffed.

“Perhaps it would anger her if we get involved.”

“ Are you now telling me NOT to do something about this?” Torbörn glared. Reinhardt nodded. “ We may have reacted too quickly upon reading her letter.” The door clicked and beeped, signaling it unlocked. Jack turned the handle and walked right in.

Torbörn sighed. “ I suppose you're right. She's always been adamant on doing things herself. Ever since she was old enough to pick up my tools.”

“ That's what happens when you grow up with a famous father.” Reinhardt mocked. Torbörn rolled his eyes and walked into the room. “Infamous, you mean.”

It looked like Reinhardt and Torbörn really were just who Jack needed. Everyone was already seated and talking among themselves. Tracer was having an animated discussion with Winston, who couldn't help himself and was laughing a little too hard. Fareeha was here too. She just landed in Gibraltar from the Swiss training base. Torbörn also noticed Genji leaning against a wall in the back. Torbörn leaned to Reinhardt. “ Look, even Genji is here. I wonder what this is all about.”

Jack walked up to Ana at the head of the table. It looked like they both were discussing something serious. There were a lot of nodding from Jack. Angela walked up to them. “ I believe we can get started now.”

Jack nodded in agreement. Ana and Angela took their seats. Jack cleared his throat and used the glass controls on the desk to dim the room's lights. Everyone quieted down. Well, all except Tracer, who was still going on about something. The more excited she was the more prominent her accent was. It was Winston who nudged her softly to snap her back.

“Oi! Sorry! So what's the rush? Why is everyone here? Must be sumthin serious.” Tracer turned her chair to face Jack.

“ Secretary-general of the United Nations and former mayor of Numbani Gabrielle Adawe has reached out to me in secret. She fears there is a real threat to her city. The city has been receiving letter after letter of someone or some organization threatening to attack during this year's Unity Fair.” Jack pressed a button and an image of the city's website announcing the celebration dates and events appeared along with a copy of one of the letters. The letter was written in red marker with terrible handwriting.

Fareeha leaned forward in her chair. “ What kind of threats would elicit Adawe to seek our help?”

“ In secret nonetheless.” Reinhardt added. “ I thought she was for Overwatch starting again?”

Jack rubbed his chin. “ She was. She still is. But it's up to the new mayor to decide to let us help and he doesn't want it. But Adawe says these letters could be coming from a known group of homegrown terrorists who have been causing trouble since Doomfist attacked the city and put Numbani's OR15 program out of commission.”

“ Do these terrorists have links to Talon then?” Tracer asked.  
Jack shook his head. “No, we don't think so.” Ana turned her chair to talk to the table.

“ This group came from a movement against the city.” As Ana spoke Jack brought up some images. “Some citizens were upset that the city put so much money into a program that didn't work.”

Torbörn huffed. “ I'd be upset to hear one man took out the city's new security. That's just poor craftsmanship!” Everyone in the room seemed to roll their eyes.

“Ironically, as time went on, the people who organized to have better security for their city began attacking it. They became more extreme in their protest tactics. People got hurt.” Ana concluded.

“Well that's just silly!” Tracer said with a huffed as she leaned back in her chair. “That makes no sense!”

Genji walked up to the table and leaned on it with both arms spread out. “I get it. They want the city to do something about security, they created a security risk.” Jack nodded in agreement.

“I think we are getting away from the topic here.” Torbörn noted. “What does this have to do with all of us?”

Jack finally continued the briefing. “Adawe wants Overwatch to cover this year's Fair. But it has to be done in secret. She is no longer the mayor and any attempt to bring us in has been shot down by the new mayor.” Jack clicked a button on the table that turned the screens off and raised the lights. “ This is a precarious situation and I need the best to make sure our involvement stays a secret.”

Torbjörn notably huffed to get everyone's attention. “So, are we going to Numbani illegally, just as a favor to someone who supported us in the past?”

Ana was quick to bite. “That's not it at all, Torbjörn. We are doing this to protect the people of Numbani.”

“We are not welcome there as their guardians! They have refused our help, we cannot force ourselves upon them!”

Tracer interjected next. “ It's our duty as an organization of peace to protect innocent people!” She slammed her small fist on the top of the table, clearly upset on hearing opposition.

“And as a neutral organization we don't get to decide what is best for any country!” Torbjörn shot back. Reinhardt looked at his friend. He thought Torbjörn was reacting aggressively and out of character. Perhaps his friend is still upset over the news from Brigitte. “ I have to agree with Torbjörn…” Reinhardt admitted. His voice booming over Tracer and Torbjörn. This got everyone's attention. “... At least to some degree. A secret assignment sounds like Blackwatch work. And that makes me uncomfortable.”

Torbjörn crossed his arms and nodded with his friend. Angela nodded discreetly in agreement.

“ I understand.” Jack said. He straightened his back and took a moment to look at everyone. “ Believe me the last thing I want is something that could push back all the progress we've been making. That is why, as a democratic organization, we'll put it to a vote. We won't do anything unless it unanimous.”

This was a new concept. They have voted on action before but it never had to be unanimous. This surprised everyone. Jack was the first to raise his hand to start off the vote.

“I know Adawe, she wouldn't come to us if she didn't think it was serious. So she has my vote.”

Ana was next to raise her. Then Fareeha raised hers, just as fast as her mother. “If we can help prevent a catastrophe from happening, I think it's worth doing.” Of course when Jack looked to Lena her hand was already way above her head. “We are here to protect people from terrorists like these. We have to do something.” Winston took a moment but he also raised his hand. “ I'll help out where I can.”

It seemed the pattern was going around the table so that pretty much meant it was Genji's turn. He stood with his arms crossed. “ This mission won't be like any Blackwatch mission. I'll make sure of that. You have my vote, Morrison.” It was now Torbjörn's turn. Everyone’s eyes fell to him. He sat in his chair with his arms across his chest grinding his teeth together in deep thought. Reinhardt decided to speak to fill in the silence.

“This could be risky. No doubt about that. But I believe Miss Adewe. She is a smart woman and she has been on our side in the past. If she has fear that something might happen, then she is probably right.” Jack shifted his feet to stand in a more comfortable way. He nodded with Reinhardt, who continued. “I believe that if there is anyone who can go in and get the job done discreetly, it is the people in this room.” Reinhardt looked at Torbjörn who was listening intensely to his friend. “ You all have my vote.”

Now it was finally time for Torbjörn to speak. “ People thought we were above the law.” He started softly. “ Heck! We were! That is why people stopped believing in us. A lot of the people in the world still don't trust us.” Torbjörn thought about his time in Oasis. He remembered the look on Minister O'Deorain when she made a similar comment about Overwatch. He realized he hadn't spoken in a while. He looked at everyone at the table. They all knew this was risky and they were not upset at what he was saying. Not even Tracer.

Torbjörn placed his hands on the table. “ If we are going in it's going to be done perfectly.” Tracer let a hiss of happy relief at hearing this and Torbjörn was sure the whole room dropped their tense shoulders. “Absolutely no one must know Overwatch was there. You all hear me.” He pushed his chair out and hoped to the floor. He pointed at Jack. “Also, I won't be making any weapons for this, you guys will have to find some other sap.”

Jack rubbed the back of his neck while he nodded lazily. “ Of course. I would never ask that of you. But could you fashion some discreet cameras we can place around the fair?”

Torbjörn huffed. “Of course I can. Consider it done. Now if we are done here, I'd like to get started.” Jack nodded and Torbjörn walked towards the door. “ If there is anything else I'll come to you.” With that Torbjörn left to his workshop to draw up designs.

“ As for the rest of you, Ana, Angela and I have discussed a possible plan. We will need the most discreet of us out into the field.” Winston gave a short but loud laugh. “ Looks like we are sitting this one out, huh Reinhardt.”

Reinhardt laughed and slapped his hand down on his knee. “ On the sidelines once again! The world is just not ready for our brawn!”

“ I'm sorry loves.” Ana apologized.

“ It is no problem my dear. We understand. We will be here ready for when you need us.”

“ That's exactly what we were thinking.” Angela spoke up. “ We hope that it won't come to needing backup but we can never be too careful.”

“Finally a field mission! It's about time I stretch these legs of mine with real Overwatch work!” Tracer said while stretching her arms.

Jack pointed to her. “ I want to deploy you, ana, and Angela to cover the ground at the festival. Make sure to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.” He pointed to Genji next. “ We will need your skills to watch from above and to get into places without alerting our presence.”

“ You can count on me.”

Jack turned to face Fareeha. “ You are also welcome to scope the crowd with them. I only hesitate to ask because I know the newbies are getting ready for assignment and what a headache the training facility is right now.”

“ I appreciate it.” She said while standing up. “ But I think you guys have it all handled and I'm needed back at the base. Thank you team. Feel free to call me if there is anything my team and I can do.” Everyone gave their own goodbye. Fareeha squeezed her mother's shoulder before finally taking her leave.

Angela clapped her hands together. “ Alright team. Let's get ready.”

“ I'll give Adewe the news and then we'll head to Numbani a few days before the festival. Good work team. Let's protect the innocent.”

 

The elevator bounced slightly as it stopped on the right floor. The dark metal door slid to the side to let it's passengers off or rather it's only passenger.

“Agent Sombra.” A man dressed in a simple white button up and slacks walked up to the brightly colored woman.“ This way.” The man led her down a long corridor filled with empty meeting rooms.

“ What does boss man want with me down here? I'm not the negotiating type, at least not in person. A lil good with blackmail…” She rambled. “... But I don't even know who I'm dealing with here.” They stopped in front of a dark grey door that had a red light above the threshold signaling the room was in use. “You know what I mean?” She asked the man knowing full well that he could care less about what the woman was going on about. His part of his assignment was done. He went to press his key card to the door when Sombra hacked it with one finger faster than he could unlock it.

“ Thanks but…” the light turned green for a second before flashing to signal she could open the door. “ … I got it.” The man exhaled loudly and then walked off to get back to whatever his job here at Talon was.

Sombra entered the room swiftly. The hall light flashed the inside of the dark room quickly. Everything returned to normal once the door shut completely. Sombra found Akande sitting relaxed in a leather chair. He was in a handsome white suit with huge rings on his fingers. He leaned back while rubbing his chin. In the center of the room was a life sized hologram of a young white man who was also dressed sharply andand w one hand in his pants’ pocket.

When Sombra walked in Akande lifted his finger to discreetly tell her to wait. He looked back at the man.

“ I do not think I heard you correctly, how much were you selling for just one…” He emphasized the word one. “...part of Mr. Lindholm's plans for a…” Akande snapped his fingers in an attempt to remember what the man was selling.

“An undetectable drop ship, Mr. Ogundimu. One that can be easily built and massed produced. And the price is set at $120,000,000,000.” The man said calmly in an American accent.

“That is outrageous!” Akande laughed. “You can't seriously believe an organization as big as mine can be tricked into paying that ungodly amount for nothing.”

“ It's not nothing. We are in possession of one out of three plans. The other two are in transit to one of our locations and we will gladly sell you the rest for an extremely discounted price.” Akande chucked again at this. The man in the hologram took his hand out of his pocket and lit a cigarette with a flip lighter that he returned to the pocket. “ I could easily sell the three parts to three separate buyers. I would make more money that way, but I'm offering you a deal. I like Talon, I like you and I know you guys will make the most out of something like this.”

Akande held his hand up to signal that the meeting was coming to an end.”I've heard enough.” The man flicked his cigarette somewhere off screen. “Tell you what Akande,” Sombra found this young man to be very bold. She wondered what history he and Akande had. “Because I like doing business with you, I'll talk it over with some of my people and see what we can do. And hopefully we can continue this chat sometime tomorrow? How's that sound?” The man ran his hand through his blonde hair to set a piece back into place.

“ There will be no need to reschedule, young man. I no longer need your services.” Sombra got to see the look of shock on the American's face before Akande pressed the button to shut off the hologram.

After an appropriate amount of silence passed Sombra spoke. “ Who was that guy?” Akande stood up and set his jacket straight. “A underground weapons dealer from North America. I've done business with his family. But now they are awaiting trial. So now their child has taken control.” He says this with a chuckle.

“Sounds like he's doing a great job.” Sombra looks around the room. She knows there was a reason he sent for her but she had no clue what the reason was. When she does look back at Akande he looks extremely annoyed. He almost looks pissed. Then it clicks.

“I think I know why-” Akande cuts her off before she can finish.

“Why is it taking so long to locate one man!?” He said loudly. He wasn't yelling but there was force behind every word. “I would not have to deal with kids like this one if I had agents that actually knew how to do their job!”

Sombra remained calm and cool. She had dealt with actual unstable criminals before joining Talon. Criminals who she wasn't so sure if they could restrain their homicidal tendencies long enough for her to finish her job. Akande was more dangerous than all of those guys, but he was smart. He would not kill her now.

“Overwatch has been quite. They haven't been sending out any elites and they haven't been sending Lindholm to any bases.”

This did nothing to ease the look Akande was still giving. He didn't look like he was going to say anything so she continued. “He hasn't gone home. I've been monitoring his house. He still is with Overwatch I know for sure, I just don't know where.”

“Find out where he is Agent Sombra. Now. Or I'll see if the American will lower the price, in exchange for your parts.” He patted Sombra's cheek heavily as he exited the room.

 

Sombra entered her space and plopped down in her chair at her desk. She did not have any computers or any kind of device on her desk. She was a computer after all. She swiped her hand across the empty space and three large holographic screens appeared. She's been all over every kind of web out there to try and keep tabs on every Overwatch agent. She had a pretty organized system. She pressed a tab on one of her screens and it opened to an article that read: PEACEFUL PARISIAN OMNIC PROTEST STAYS PEACEFUL.

“Looks like the big guy has left Paris.” On the other screen, she updated her Overwatch Agents list. She changec Reinhardt's location to “Gibraltar”. She has no idea where Gibraltar is, but she has stolen radio audios where they mention it. So she knows that wherever Gibraltar is, it must be their main base.

She clicked on Torbjörn's name on her list and it brought up all the man's information including past locations where he had been marked. She had him labeled as being at “Gibraltar”.

“But that would mean he has been at Gibraltar for over 7 months. I don't believe he's been there this whole time.” She said to herself. His last known location was when he travelled to Oasis. “If Moria had grabbed him while he was there, I wouldn't be in this mess.” She grumbled.

She leaned back in her chair and propped her feet up on the desk. She tirelessly swept through pages on her screens when suddenly an article caught her attention. She took the corners of her screen and pulled them out to make the image bigger. The article was from a swedish news story.

“OW TRAINING BASE COMMANDER BACK SO SOON?” Sombra read through the article quickly. The article explained that Captain Fareeha Amari left suddenly by jet only to return a day later. Conspiracy theorist believe Overwatch could possibly be meeting with founding members to discuss an issue not yet come to light and there is talk about an impending conflict... “ yadda yadda yadda.” Sombra pushed away that screen and brought up another. “I am so stupid! The Swiss training base! They would have the connections to the Overwatch main computer! Amari would have complete access.” Sombra laughed loudly while she furiously typed.

“Oh this is perfect.” She clicked a file she had tucked away. The file was labeled “hubby”. Inside the file was only a phone number.


End file.
